The Asian Star April 14 2018

Vol 17 - Issue 11

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Tel:604-591-5423

2

Saturday, April 14, 2018

This Vaisakhi, send money safely and securely to India.

CIBC makes it easy with $0 transfer fee1 and exchange rates worth celebrating.

Spread the harvest of joy with CIBC Global Money Transfer TM. Receive $50 when you open a CIBC account and make your first Global Money Transfer2.

Receive $25 when you send your first Global Money Transfer3.

Use promo code GMT25 Happy Vaisakhi!

Try it yourself at cibc.com/transfer or visit a CIBC Banking Centre today

CIBC is proud to join Sikh and Punjabi Canadians in their celebration of Vaisakhi with limited edition 1 oz silver coin and 10 g gold coin, depicting the symbols of Khanda and Ik Onkar.Visit any CIBC Banking Centre today or order online at preciousmetals.cibc.com 1 Transfer up to $15,000 CAD with no additional fee. CIBC foreign exchange rates apply. A CIBC Global Money Transfer transaction counts toward your allowable transaction limit; bank account transaction fees may apply. Must have a CIBC chequing, savings or personal line of credit account to send a CIBC Global Money Transfer.

Most transfers are completed by the next business day; some transfers require 2 to 3 business days. 2Open a new CIBC personal bank account [savings, chequing or a personal line of credit] and make a CIBC Global Money Transfer within 60 days after account opening and you will receive $50 CAD in your CIBC chequing or savings account within 20 business days. Offer runs from 12:00:01 am EST April 2, 2018 until 11:59:59 p.m. EST on April 22, 2018. 3If you have a CIBC personal bank account but have not yet tried CIBC Global Money Transfer (“GMT”), request a GMT transfer and you will receive $25 CAD in your CIBC account within 20 business days. Offer runs from 12:00:01amEST on April 2, 2018 until 11:59:59EST on April 22, 2018. CIBC Cube Design & “Banking that fits your life.” are trademarks of CIBC. All other trademarks are owned by CIBC.

www.theasianstar.com Vol 17 - Issue 11

Saturday, April 14, 2018

South Asian man owns the truck that smashed into hockey team bus, killing 16

T

he truck that smashed into hockey team bus, killing 16 and injuring fourteen people, is woned by a South Asian man. It is believed the driver was also a South Asian, on the job for only two weeks. Sukhmander Singh, of Calgary, is the owner of the trucking company, Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd, involved in a horrific collision that killed 16 people on the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team bus. He told reporters that the tragedy has upended his life and he’s not sure what the future holds for his business. “It changed my whole life, this incident,” Sukhmander Singh told reporters outside his suburban Calgary home Wednesday. A visibly tired man said he doesn’t know what his next steps will be, as an investigation continues into the collision, which happened near Tisdale, Sask. on Friday.

Calgary truck company involved in Humboldt Broncos crash ‘sorry for everything’ Alberta suspends certificate of trucking company involved in Broncos crash Continued on page 6

Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner to quit Tom Gill & Bruce Hayne leading candidates to replace her

S

urrey Mayor Linda Hepner has announced she will not run in the 2018 municipal election.

In a statement released Tuesday evening , Hepner said she “thought long and hard” about the decision but decided to step aside to dedicate more time to her family and friends.

Private companies spent $47K to send Surrey’s mayor to real estate conference

PM Trudeau to meet with BC & Alberta premiers on Sunday to resolve Trans Mountain pipeline dispute

P

rime Minister Justin Trudeau will sit down on Sunday with Premier John Horgan and Alberta’s Premier Rachel Notley in an effort to hash out a solution to the ongoing dispute over the Trans Mountain pipeline project.

Trudeau, who is on his way to Peru for the Summit of the Americas, will return to Ottawa for the meeting before resuming his travels to Paris and London, spokesperson Chantal Gagnon said Thursday, just moments

Tel:604-591-5423

before the prime minister’s flight took off.

Tensions over the pipeline impasse reached a new peak this week when Kinder Morgan stopped all non-essential spending on the expansion project, pending reassurance from the federal government that the project would be going ahead.

Trudeau had an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday where ministers discussed — but did not settle on — options for action, Continued on page 7

“During my time with Surrey, the City has evolved from a modest suburb into the region’s second metropolitan centre and a globally recognized leading edge city,” she said in the statement.

“I am very proud to have contributed to this t ransfor mat ion, but there will always be more to do, more to achieve and, therefore, there is never an ideal time to leave.

Continued on page 7

Happy Vaisakhi to all our readers

National security committee will probe allegations of foreign interference in Canadian politics - after Atwal affair

T

he new national security committee of parliamentarians is conducting a special review of the Jaspal Atwal affair that has dogged the Liberal government since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ill-fated trip to India in February.

The committee of MPs and senators will go behind closed doors to examine allegations relating to foreign interference in Canadian politics, risks to the prime minister’s

security and inappropriate use of intelligence.

In a statement, the committee, which has access to classified materials, says the issues could have important implications for Canada’s national security and sovereignty.

Trudeau was embarrassed during the trip when it was revealed that Atwal, a B.C. Sikh convicted of trying to assassinate an Indian minister in 1986, had been invited to two events with the prime minister.

He was photographed with Trudeau’s wife and at least one cabinet minister during an event in Mumbai; an invitation to a second event was rescinded after news broke of Atwal’s presence.

Jaspal Atwal, right, arrives with his lawyer Rishi T. Gill for a news conference in downtown Vancouver on Thursday, March, 8, 2018.

Continued on page 6

4

OPINION Peter Menzies

Saturday, April 14, 2018

The CRTC remains shrouded in mystery

Many years ago, after a particularly chaotic day in a newsroom, a couple of colleagues and I shared a deep breath, a relieved laugh and shook our heads in dismay.

“If only they knew,” one of us said of the readers we sought to serve, “… if only they knew.” I decided then that If Only They Knew would be the title of my first book, a sort of Tales from the Crypt regarding the inner workings of those, at the time, large and chaotic newsrooms.

The aim was not so much to debunk the romantic mythology of journalism as depicted in recent movies such as Spotlight and The Post but to explain that at the times we failed, it had a lot more to do with our competence than it did with any conspiracy. The fact is, most of us just weren’t smart enough, evil enough or equipped with the time required to pull off the latter.

But alas, I appear to have outlived the newsroom to which I refer. My son tells me he looks forward to trying to explain to his children what a newspaper was.

On the bright side, I’m confident that another of my long-term employers – the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) – will still be marching along vigorously long after I’ve moved on to the next dance craze. Perhaps the CRTC would make a better subject for a book about if only they knew how decisions were made. Because, remarkably for a public institution that on an almost daily basis makes decisions about the communications tools people use, the content they consume and the price they pay for it, the place remains shrouded in mystery. While a decision-maker there, I once asked why our votes weren’t recorded and made public, or why minutes weren’t kept of decision meetings and posted on the website. We were, after all, public appointees, spending public dollars to make decisions intended to serve the public interest.

Surely the public had a right know who voted for what and what the nature of the debate, if any, was that took place prior to that vote.

The most coherent explanation I got was that this might place “too much pressure” on the commissioners. My view was clearly not one that had a lot of support and there may be better reasons than the one I heard. But my response to that one is this: Making CRTC decisions is inside work that doesn’t involve heavy lifting.

It pays $170,000-plus a year with full benefits.

There should be pressure. There should be accountability. The public should know, for instance, who among the commissioners most and least frequently asks questions regarding decisions recommended by public servants.

They should know – and increased transparency was a big feature in the current government’s mandate – who voted in favour and who voted against which decisions, with perhaps some indications as to why. (Wanting to be popular at parties is not a good reason.) The public and other stakeholders should know which commissioners can be expected to consistently agree with actions recommended by staff and which can be counted upon to challenge.

It’s not hard to do. The same should go, for that matter, for other public institutions governed by public appointees, although there may be valid reasons for exceptions in the case of, for instance, parole boards.

There have been some awkward genuflections in the direction of accountability at the CRTC in recent years. Those, however, appear to do little other than direct attention at the non-discretionary costs of travel between the locations of regional commissioners and Ottawa, while leaving undisclosed the discretionary travel expenses of senior public servants. No one in Donald Trump’s America has any doubt how and why members of the Federal Communications Commission vote on decisions regarding the public good. There’s no good reason why Canadians shouldn’t have access to the same transparency. If they did, they probably wouldn’t be as afraid of the regulator as so many of them are.

Troy Media contributor Peter Menzies is former publisher of the Calgary Herald and a past vice-chair of the CRTC.

www.theasianstar.com # 202 - 8388, 128 St., Surrey, BC V3W 4G2 Ph: 604-591-5423 Fax: 604-591-8615 E-mail: editor@theasianstar.com Editor: Umendra Singh Associate Editor: Chhavi Disawar Marketing and Sales: Ravinder S. Cheema........604-715-3847 Shamir Doshi....................604-649-7827 Harminder Kaur...............778-708-0481 Parminder Dhillon..........778-859-9234 Layout: Avee J Waseer Pre-Press: Iftikhar Ahmed Contributing writers: Jag Dhatt, Akash Sablok, Kamila Singh, Jay Bains

Publication Mail Agreement No 428336012 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Dept.

New address: # 202 - 8388, 128 St., Surrey, BC V3W 4G2 All advertising in The Asian Star is subject to the publishers’ approval and the advertiser agrees to indemnify the publishers against claims arising from publication of any advertisement submitted by the advertiser.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

SIMPSON, THOMAS & ASSOCIATES

5

6 From page 1

Saturday, April 14, 2018

South Asian man owns truck that smashed into hockey team bus, killing 16

“Lots of pressure on my mind,” he said. “My work is gone. My other truck is shut down now.” Alberta Transportation said Tuesday it had ordered Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd. to keep its only other truck off the road. The move is standard when a company has been involved in a serious accident, the province said. Transportation Minister Brian Mason said the company started operating last fall and hasn’t had any violations or convictions and hadn’t been in any collisions, until this one. Singh said he hadn’t spoken to the driver about what happened, but that his 30-year-old colleague had been going to the doctor every day. Singh said the driver, whose name he did not provide, started working for him about a

month ago. Singh said he and the driver, who is also from Calgary, are the only people working for the company and that the two know each other through their circle of friends. Singh said he had checked the driver’s credentials before hiring him. “I’m just sorry for everything,” he said. “Tough time for everybody.” The Broncos were heading to Nipawin for a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game when their bus and a semi truck carrying a load of peat moss crashed at an intersection. There were 29 people on the bus. Sixteen people died and 13 were injured.The driver of the truck was not injured. RCMP said he was initially detained, but was released and offered counselling. The

cause of the crash is still unknown.

Saskatchewan RCMP said We d n e s d a y officers continue to investigate.

They said they have done dozens of interviews and vehicle computer data is being recovered and analyzed.

“Investigations

such as this can take significant time,” the Mounties said in a release.

“However, we have dedicated the necessary resources to ensure this investigation can be done as expediently as possible.”

A Calgary trucking company that owns the semi truck that collided with the Humboldt Broncos bus and killed 15 people has been ordered to keep its vehicles off the road.

A spokesman with Alberta Transportation says Adesh Deol Trucking Ltd. started operating last fall. John Archer said the government suspended the commercial carrier’s safety fitness certificate on Monday.

Committee will probe allegations of foreign interference in Canadian politics From page 1 Trudeau’s national security adviser, Daniel Jean, suggested during a background briefing that factions in the Indian government had sabotaged Trudeau’s trip. Jean advanced the theory that rogue factions in the Indian government arranged for Atwal’s presence in a bid to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from becoming too cosy with a foreign government they believe is sympathetic to extremist Sikh separatists.

Initially, Jean’s briefing was attributed only to a senior government official but the Conservatives soon outed Jean as the official in question. They have been demanding ever since that he give the same briefing to MPs. The Liberal government initially rejected that demand, offering up only a classified briefing to Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. Atwal ‘devastated’ by uproar over invite to Trudeau event, says he has renounced terrorism.

However,lastweekJeanofferedtotestify openly before the House of Commons public safety committee, in addition to giving a classified briefing to Scheer.

The national security committee of parliamentarians will provide its own special report by the end of May to the prime minister and the ministers of foreign affairs and public safety, and an unclassified version of the report must be tabled in both the House of Commons and Senate.

The Liberal government passed legislation last year to create the new committee as a forum where politicians with the highest level of security clearance can hear secret testimony.

LOCAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018 From page 1

7

PM Trudeau to meet with BC & Alberta premiers on Sunday to resolve Trans Mountain pipeline dispute including whether to help finance the project or pull funding from B.C. to help convince Horgan to stop blocking the project.

Ottawa has jurisdiction for the pipeline and approved the expansion plans in 2016, but Horgan has thrown up a number of road blocks, including a lawsuit over the approval process and a threat to prevent oil from flowing through it, all of which have helped to spook Kinder Morgan’s investors.

The impasse has become one of the most difficult political predicaments to date for the Trudeau government, which is being squeezed between those who accuse it of not doing enough to get the expansion built, and critics who don’t want to see it built at all.

Trudeau posted a new video Thursday in which he insists he would never approve pipelines like the Trans Mountain expansion if he did not believe they could proceed safely.

In the video, Trudeau is seen strolling along a B.C. beach with Ocean Networks Canada CEO Kate Moran and Rob Stewart, president of B.C. Coast Pilots, discussing the government’s $1.5-billion oceans protection plan, which he says gives the government the confidence that Canada’s oceans and coastlines will be protected even with a new, expanded pipeline.

Trudeau has long insisted that the environment can’t be properly protected if Canada can’t also get its resources to market, since resource-driven economic growth is what allows the government to take steps to protect the environment. Had the government not approved the pipeline,

Surrey Mayor Hepner to quit From page 1 “It has been an honour and privilege to serve you and the City of Surrey.”

Hepner is finishing up her first term as mayor, after being elected in 2014. She previously served as a city councillor, beginning in 2005.

Hepner succeeded former mayor Dianne Watts to be the standard bearer for the Surrey First coalition, which has been dominant in city politics since 2008.

In the 2014 election, Surrey First took every

council seat and every school board seat.

Surrey mayor says it’s frightening that gang prevention programs are needed in elementary schools The party held their closed-door annual general meeting Tuesday night in South Surrey where Hepner made the announcement to party members. After the news broke, there was much speculation about who would become the party’s mayoral candidate.

Coun. Tom Gill says he interested in seeking the party’s nomination but hasn’t made a final decision yet and is currently having discussions with his family and his team.

Coun.

Mike Starchuk declined comment on his next steps and Coun.

it would never have been able to convince industry stakeholders or the Alberta government to support its climate and oceans protection plans, he has said.

Thursday’s developments come the same day as a new economic analysis from Environmental Defence and Climate Action Network Canada, which argues the country’s emissions targets can still be met without new pipelines and without hurting the economy.

With a shift to clean technology, the report says, Canada’s economy would grow by up to 38.5 per cent between now and

2030, even with the actions necessary to meet emissions targets under the Paris climate change agreement.

Meanwhile, doing nothing on climate change would mean economic growth of 39 per cent by 2030, it says — a difference that would be readily taken up by the savings in health costs and other impacts resulting from less pollution and lower global temperatures.

An expanded Trans Mountain

pipeline would mean additional fossilfuel development in the oilsands, said Environmental Defence national program manager Dale Marshall, who argues it can’t be allowed to proceed if Canada really wants to reduce emissions.

Thursday also saw the release of a letter to Trudeau from some 40 environment groups in Quebec, warning the prime minister that his electoral fortunes in that province will be in peril if he makes Trans Mountain his political legacy.

Aurore Fauret, with the group 350 Canada, says Trudeau has not provided any scientific evidence to back his claims that the pipeline will pose no risk to emissions levels, the oceans or coastlines.

8

Saturday, April 14, 2018

India is beefing up its military as tensions rise with Pakistan and China India is looking to make a multibillion-dollar defense deal to secure more than 100 fighter aircraft, according to a request for information issued on Friday. According to the request, the aircraft are to be day- and night-capable, all-weather multirole combat aircraft that can fulfill air-superiority, air-defense, and air-tosurface roles, as well as carry out reconnaissance and maritime operations. The notice stipulates that 75% of the 110 fighters are to be singleseat aircraft and the rest twin-seaters. India is looking to buy 15% of the aircraft in a fly-away state and to produce the other 85% in India under the Make in India program.

The first aircraft would need to arrive within three years of signing the contract, which could be worth up to $15 billion and be the world’s largest fighter aircraft deal, according to Bloomberg.

Vendors have until July 6 to submit responses to the RFI, and the Indian air force wants to issue a formal request for proposals within six to 12 months of getting those responses, according to the Times of India.

For the past several years, India has been looking to upgrade and modernize its armed forces, partly in response to what it sees as growing risks posed by neighbors Pakistan and China. New Delhi is already looking to increase its maritime capabilities by acquiring more submarines and advanced sub-hunting patrol planes. Ten existing squadrons of India’s Russia-made MiG-21 and MiG-27 fighters are scheduled for retirement by 2022,

and the country’s air force and navy need to acquire up to 400 single- and double-engine aircraft, the government has said. The air force wants to accelerate acquisition in order to build up its fighter squadrons, of which it now has 31, each with 18 planes. It sees 42 or more squadrons as necessary to fight a two-front war. India began looking for new fighters in 2007. That search led to the Indian government picking Dassault Aviation to supply 126 Rafale jets for $11 billion. But that deal stalled and was cancelled in 2015.

The Indian government instead elected to import 36 Rafale jets, which will arrive between 2019 and 2022.

Prime Minister Modi speaks during the inauguration ceremony of the ‘Make In India’ week in Mumbai, India, February 13, 2016.

REUTERS/Danish SiddiquiPrime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration ceremony for “Make In India” week in Mumbai, February 13, 2016.

Thomson Reuters The latest request for information is a revision of an earlier request that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the air force to expand in order to include twin-engine aircraft and attracted high-profile weapons manufacturers, Bloomberg reported in February.

India has had contentious relations with China, particularly along the two countries’ shared border. Disputes there have led to conflicts in the past, and in summer 2017 New Delhi and Beijing clashed in a months-

Continued on page 9

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Overdose spike in Surrey prompts officials to issue dangerous drug alert

A significant spike in overdoses in the Surrey area has prompted officials with the Fraser Health Authority to issue an alert to drug users and harm reduction agencies about “purple, pink, blue and brown down substances.”

A spokesperson for Fraser Health says the spike was reported by emergency responders after an increase in the volume of 911 overdose calls. Exact numbers for how many overdoses have been responded to — or if there have been any deaths — are unknown.

A poster warning of the bad drugs says they have been observed to cause loss of consciousness, seizures, and extreme muscle rigidity. It also says overdoses have been reported in those smoking the drug, as well as ingesting or injecting it. The specific identity of the drug or drugs involved is not known, however “down drugs” include things like fentanyl, heroin and oxcycontin.

Veterinary assistant killed in hit-and-run in Maple Ridge Maple Ridge veterinary assistant Tassis Vix, 31, was killed while walking along Lougheed Highway Thursday night, according to the Haney Animal Hospital where she worked.

RCMP say the incident happened just before 10 p.m. in the 21800 block of Lougheed.

The westbound vehicle did not stop and Vix was pronounced dead at the scene. Jyoti Talwar, manager at Haney Animal Hospital, said the staff was taking the news hard Friday morning.“She was like family, she

was so good. She was managing everything,” said Talwar. “Everybody’s so devastated, it was so hard.” Talwar said Vix had a 10-yearold daughter, and had been working at the clinic for 15 years, since she was a teenager.

“She was friendly with everybody. She was so compassionate. She was so friendly with all the creatures. She was such a good woman,” said Talwar, who said she was in shock when she learned the news Friday morning and called Vix’s mother to confirm.

Home prices continue to climb in BC, despite dramatic sales decline: BCREA

H

ome sales in British Columbia plummeted last month compared with March of last year, but the B.C. Real Estate Association says the decline was not reflected in prices. Sales figures released by the association for March show 7,409 homes changed hands last month, a decline of 24.6 per cent over March 2017, while average property prices climbed 5.3 per cent over the same period. A news release from the association says the average home sold for $726,930 last month and it blames persistently high prices on the lack of properties available for sale.

It says total active listings have changed very little since March of 2017, nudging a 12-year low across B.C. Association chief economist Cameron Muir forecasts prices will continue to climb as long as the trend continues.

He is also critical of what he calls the “burdensome” mortgage qualification rules

that took effect in January, saying they have had the “predictable effect of swiftly curbing housing demand.”

“You simply cannot pull as much as 20 per cent of the purchasing power away from conventional mortgage borrowers and not create a downturn in consumer demand,” Muir says in the release.

B.C. home sales in March tallied $5.39 billion, a 20.6 per cent tumble compared with March 2017, while the association says sales dollar volumes since January slipped 1.7 per cent to $13.9 billion, compared with the first quarter of last year.

Residential sales also fell 9.4 per cent during the first three months of this year, while the association reports the average price of a home increased 8.5 per cent to just over $732,000 during the same period.

India is beefing up its military as tensions rise with China and Pakistan From page 8 long standoff around an area called the advanced than the aircraft China has sent on Doklam, or Donglang, near China’s and patrols over the South China Sea, indicating India’s borders with Bhutan. That showdown China’s priorities. eased in late August, but both sides still have “Sending these jets to different theatre military personnel stationed there. In the commands shows that the major focus of months since, India has deployed Su-30 MKI China’s military is still the east, with the combat aircraft to airbases in the region. In United States being the main rival. The threat February, China sent J-10 and J-11 fighters from India comes second in China’s military to Tibet, which borders India, after exercises priority,” Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based that Chinese commentators linked to the military expert, told South China Morning recent tensions.

Post. “But of course China made sure the new The aircraft deployed to Tibet were less jets it deployed were better than India’s.”

Classes starting from May 14, 2018

LOCAL

9

10

LOCAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

City of Vancouver audits empty homes declarations as privacy commissioner reviews process The City of Vancouver is auditing some of the declarations it has received from homeowners ahead of the deadline next week for payment of its new empty homes tax. It has been asking some owners for documents to support claims that their homes or condos are not being left unoccupied or under-utilized, even though the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. says it is still reviewing the audit portion of the city’s empty homes tax program. The office says it has no comment for now, but “generally … we would look to see that any personal information collected is necessary to accomplish the goals of the program.”

The city’s website explains that its auditing process involves randomly asking some property owners to provide evidence including, but not limited to, “tenancy agreements, bank statements showing reoccurring rental income,

insurance certificates for tenants insurance, information from long-term tenant providing occupancy, and income tax returns or notices of assessment stating rental income.” Armida Spada-McDougall, a retired schoolteacher and realtor who owns three condo units at the Wall Centre on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver, was asked by the city to provide tenancy agreements. She has been opposed to the tax, and now, she is even more irked. SpadaMcDougall says she lives in one of the luxury tower units, and rents out the other two to long-term tenants. A few weeks ago, after filing her declaration, the city requested a copy of the rental agreements Spada-McDougall has signed with her tenants. She refused to hand them in even though they would go toward establishing her claim and exempt her from the tax.

Harjit Sajjan orders crackdown as Canadian Forces Facebook page features racist, vulgar comments Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has ordered a crackdown on the growing number of racist and misogynist comments on the Canadian Forces’ official Facebook page. Though the Forces have a team of dedicated social media staffers, the comments have become so toxic at times that one member of the public observed the “comment section around here reads like a Sons of Odin chat room,” a reference to a far-right, antiimmigration group. In January, the Canadian Forces tried to reason with readers of the Facebook page, posting a plea to those commenting not to make death threats or remarks that are hateful, sexist, racist or homophobic. But the request itself prompted racist and other inappropriate comments aimed at Sajjan. News media organizations such as Postmedia deal with similar issues of inappropriate comments, with varying degrees of success, on their website sites and Facebook pages. However, the military employs four fulltime members of staff to monitor and moderate social media activity during working hours, while a fifth does so during off-hours and on the weekend. Department of National Defence spokeswoman Ashley Lemire explained that the Facebook page is actively monitored. “But sometimes we miss posts,” she acknowledged.

Indeed, the official page is peppered with a wide range of inappropriate comments, some which are months old. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has at times been described as a “turd” and a “traitor.” Sajjan is called a “coward” and a “disgrace to Canada,” among more racially charged terms. One comment describes another person using a vulgar term for female

genitalia. Another complains about planeloads of Mexicans arriving daily in Calgary.

The page features claims the Liberal government is funding the Islamic State in Iraq. Some commenters question the need to highlight the contribution of black soldiers during Black History Month, while others complain about racial and gender policies in the Canadian military. Sajjan, the country’s first Sikh defence minister, is among the most frequent targets.

Many commenters accuse him of being a liar or a soldier who has “stolen valour,” because of his claims last year to have been the architect of a major offensive against the Taliban. “I still can’t take this guy seriously as head of the armed forces!,” wrote one individual. “Man, it’s not us! Sikh?”

Another commented that he only comes to the Canadian Forces Facebook page to see what the Sajjan “haters” post.

I still can’t take this guy seriously as head of the armed forces!

“I have been very clear that we will not tolerate an environment that is anything less than inclusive,” Sajjan told Postmedia in a statement about the Forces’ apparent lack of oversight of its official Facebook presence. “I am aware of this issue and I have seen some comments myself. Any type of unprofessional, discriminatory comments will not be tolerated.”

The military is in the midst of a drive to recruit more minorities and women into the ranks. Sajjan said he is trusting Gen. Jon Vance, the chief of the defence staff, to take the action needed to “ensure the Canadian Armed Forces remains an open and accepting environment.”

LOCAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

11

Vaisakhi Day parades in Metro Vancouver This April 14 and April 21, millions of Sikhs will observe Vaisakhi Day, a spring harvest festival that also marks the New Year.

Parades celebrating the event, considered one of the most important festivals on the Sikh calendar, are held in communities around the world. Metro Vancouver is no exception. The occasion will be marked with not one, but two parades — one in Vancouver this Saturday, followed by another in Surrey the following Saturday.

Here are five facts about the Vaisakhi Day celebrations.

It’s Metro Vancouver’s largest single-day festival These parades are some of the largest Vaisakhi events outside of India. The Surrey parade draws crowds of over 300,000 people, and Vancouver’s parade isn’t far behind.

With so many in attendance and no reason to hurry things up, it’s little wonder that the parade moves quite slowly. The procession, which is light on floats and mostly foot traffic, tends to take most of the day.

The Vancouver parade route will begin on Ross St., travel west on SE Marine Dr. to Main St., north on Main St to E 49th Ave, east on E 49th Ave to Fraser St., south on Fraser St to E 57th Ave to Ross St., south on Ross St to Temple. Surrey’s parade begins and finishes at 12885 85th Avenue, at Surrey’s Gurdwara Dashmesh Darbar Temple.

There’s free food Another reason the parade tends to move slowly: all the snack breaks.

Think of Vaisakhi as Halloween with better food options. Part of the Sikh and Punjabi tradition for the festival is to give out free food to revellers — ice cream, chips, soda, and whole curry lunches. Hundreds of local businesses and individuals will be feeding the crowds this

year. In short, don’t worry about packing a lunch. At the Vaisakhi Day parade, you will be as full as the streets.

Cherry blossoms sweeten the route There’s always plenty to see at the parade.

A 60-member Sikh marching band, the Sikh Motorcycle Club, and all sorts of colourful outfits. And even the flora gets into the spirit of things, bringing a pop of colour to the route.

Vaisakhi Day coincides with the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, and one of the best places to see the cherry blossoms at their best is during the Vancouver parade route, along the side streets at Punjabi Market near Main Street and 49th Avenue.

LGBTQ group marches for the first time Among the groups invited to march in this year’s parade is South Asian LGBTQ support group Sher Vancouver. This marks the first time that the Vancouver parade has included such a group. Sher Vancouver started in 2008 and has since grown to about 600 members.

It provides a safe space and support for South Asian LGBTQ people.

Members of the group will be easy to spot.

They’ll be marching wearing Sher Vancouver shirts.

After the parade, there’s a festival Don’t sleep on the Vaisakhi parade afterparty, which is technically also a before-party.

Surrey’s Dashmesh Gurdwara Vaisakhi Festival actually runs from Apr. 12th-22, and during the 11-day celebrations, there is a carnival outside the Gurdwara Dashmesh Darbar Temple.

It includes rides such as the tilt-a-whirl, the sizzler, the berry-go-round, and a haunted house. Plus there’s a midway. Tickets at the carnival cost $3.50 per ride or $24 for an allday wristband.

Cabbie lied about why he refused blind man’s ride, admits ‘I don’t like dogs’ to tribunal A taxi driver in Victoria has admitted he lied about family obligations to avoid picking up a blind man with a guide dog, a decision that will cost his employer more than $8,500.

He’s not rude — he’s French: B.C. human rights case considers waiter fired over ‘direct’ personality The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered Yellow Cab of Victoria to pay damages to Oriano Belusic after the lie was revealed, and said the taxi company will have to post notices on all its vehicles making it clear that guide dogs are welcome.

Belusic believes it was only through luck that he was able to prove the lie and win his case.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but the problem is still very, very pervasive in B.C. and probably all over North America,” he said.

Yellow Cab of Victoria will have to pay Belusic $8,500 in damages, plus interest.

Belusic and his wife were wrapping up a visit at a friend’s house on Dec. 29, 2016 when they called Yellow Cab, according to the decision.

They say they were waiting outside with Belusic’s guide dog, a yellow lab named Birch, when they got an automated phone call to say their taxi had arrived.

Belusic testified that he heard a car pull up, then drive away.

In his defence, driver Gurdeep Dhesi maintained that he cancelled the ride because his son had called and needed to be picked up.

That story was enough to convince the ministry of public safety, which dismissed a separate complaint from Belusic, about the incident. In the beginning, Yellow Cab was using the same excuse in its defence against Belusic’s human rights complaint. But just

one day before the scheduled tribunal hearing, Yellow Cab’s lawyer revealed he’d discovered Dhesi’s story was a lie.

Dhesi had claimed his son contacted him by cellphone, but when he was ordered to produce call records to prove that, it turned out his son didn’t even own a cellphone.

‘Brash, loud and obnoxious gay male’ doesn’t have right to rude emails, tribunal rules In a letter to the tribunal earlier this year, Dhesi admitted, “I chose not to pick up Mr. Belusic in the afternoon of December 29, 2016 because I don’t like dogs.”

He acknowledged he had discriminated against Belusic, and defied company policy on picking up passengers with guide dogs.

“I apologize to Mr. Belusic for cancelling his trip. I was selfish and wrong to do that,” Dhesi wrote. Belusic believes this case should serve as a wake-up call for those tasked with protecting the rights of blind people and enforcing B.C.’s Guide Dog and Service Dog Act. “The enforcement is extremely lackadaisical, or almost non-existent, from the government and other authorities that should be making sure that guide dog access rights are respected,” he said.

A spokesperson for the public safety ministry said that in light of the new evidence, staff will reach out to Belusic to see if he wants to reopen his complaint there.

The tribunal decision grants Belusic $7,500 for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect, $1,000 in compensation for expenses, and post-judgment interest.

U.K. Accounting Services Ltd. - Income Tax - Corporate Taxes - Accounting & Payroll - GST / PST - Income Tax for Small Businesses - Incorporation of New Company - Income Tax Return $25 + Evenings, Weekend & 7 Days

Umesh Parekh B.Com., LLB. ars 25 ye Over perience x of E

(Professional Bookkeeper)

Cell: 604-805-1594 B 8045 -114 St., Delta BC

E-mail: info@ukaccounting.ca Website: www.ukaccounting.ca

12

LOCAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

BC university professor in jail in Slovakia facing child porn and sexual violence charges Thompson Rivers University Prof. David Scheffel is in jail in Slovakia facing charges of child pornography, sexual violence and arms trafficking. Scheffel was arrested on Nov. 12, 2017, and has been in custody since. His request for bail was denied earlier this year and a new request filed with the Slovak court on April 4 has not been dealt with. Scheffel wrote to Kamloops This Week from his jail cell, saying he feels vulnerable and argued his imprisonment is related to his research on juvenile Romani prostitutes, “but also to my previous advocacy on behalf of disenfranchised Roma in general.” He noted a Slovak journalist who had been working on a story linking Mafia-like organizations and Slovak authorities, including the police, was recently murdered.

Scheffel said Thompson Rivers has been

helping in “subtle but meaningful ways” to assist him and he does not feel abandoned by his employer. He said he would like to see the Canadian government get involved or show “some degree of official interest,” but that he understands why it might not do that. A representative of the Dutch government has visited him and is watching the case, Scheffel said. Scheffel said the lawyer he has hired in Presov is expensive and a protracted case will be financially difficult. People who know Scheffel say the situation arises from his research in the country on the Romani culture. It’s an area in which Scheffel is acknowledged to be an expert and one he has focused on since the early 1990s, taking students on field trips to Slovakia to live with Roma families.

Morneau shoots down Singh’s high court proposal to end pipeline standoff Finance Minister Bill Morneau has dismissed NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s pitch to bring the standoff over the Kinder Morgan pipeline to an end, saying the idea of sending the matter to the Supreme Court is “not a course of action that makes sense.”

Speaking in Toronto today, Morneau told reporters once again that his government would ensure that the Trans Mountain pipeline is built.

“We are in a position where we know that this is federal jurisdiction. We’ve been clear. We don’t see a need to refer something to the Supreme Court of Canada when we already know that its a federal jurisdiction,” Morneau said. “That, from our standpoint, is not a course of action that makes sense.”

Earlier Wednesday, Singh suggested referring to the high court the jurisdictional dispute between the government of Alberta — which backs the pipeline — and the government of B.C., which opposes it.

Singh said the federal government should submit with B.C. a joint reference question for the Supreme Court to consider. “What I’m proposing is a path forward that actually brings people together,” he said during a news conference on Parliament Hill.

B.C. stakeholders, experts respond to Kinder Morgan’s deadline ultimatum for Trans Mountain pipeline It’s not clear how long the Supreme Court would take to render a decision on a Trans Mountain reference, but in past reference cases the court has taken several months to deliver decisions after hearing arguments.

The government of B.C. Premier John

Horgan announced in February that it will ask the courts to decide if it has the right to restrict the flow of diluted bitumen in the Trans Mountain pipeline. Singh said going the Supreme Court route would still be more efficient than waiting for B.C. to go through its own legal process.

‘I’d like to hear his view of the future of the Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s proposal that the Supreme Court should be asked to resolve the B.C.-Alberta Trans Mountain pipeline impasse. 5:56 Singh has so far refused to take sides in the escalating feud between Premier Horgan and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley over the pipeline expansion, saying it’s a matter for the federal government to resolve. Notley’s government announced Tuesday it plans to introduce legislation that would give the province the power to reduce oil flows, which would lead to a spike in gas prices in B.C. Tensions over the Trans Mountain expansion have been building since Kinder Morgan suspended all non-essential spending on the project on Sunday. The company has given the federal government until May 31 to deliver concrete assurances that the expanded line will get built.

Kinder Morgan said the “scope and pace of the permits and approvals” prompted it to halt spending.

“KML must have a clear line of sight on the timely conclusion of the permitting and approvals processes before we will commit to full construction spending,” company president Ian Anderson said.

LOCAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Surrey brothers want to make local Vaisakhi ‘foam free’ Two brothers from Surrey are hoping businesses and families who serve up free food at this year’s Vaisakhi parade find alternatives to Styrofoam to cut down on the waste headed to the landfill.

With two weeks to go before the celebration, Bal and Sarj Sabharwal have begun putting posters up along the parade route to draw attention to their campaign, which has the goal of eliminating Styrofoam waste from the event within five years.

“Some of the biggest attractions to Vaisakhi is the food,” said Sarj Sabharwal. “All the food is served on Styrofoam plates and, also of course, the tea which is in Styrofoam cups. So those two things — if you do the math — 400,000 plus people that attend yearly, if everyone gets even a few samples of that, we’re talking about millions of items.”

One and done: Vancouver seeks public input on reducing single-use plastic bags, straws and coffee cups Sabharwal noted that polystyrene products are difficult to recycle and contain chemicals that are harmful to the environment.

His brother, Bal Sabharwal, suggested people sharing free food could switch to paper and compostable dishes, like paper plates.

“You can also buy cutlery that is cornstarch,”

said Bal Sabharwal.

The city of Surrey has no policy about the type of material people can use to share food and drinks at the parade, although city councillor Mike Starchuk, who chairs Surrey’s Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee, said that’s not the case for events run by the city. “With Vaisakhi there’s not an all-encompassing policy that’s around it, because for a good part of Vaisakhi, it’s the homeowner where the parade is going in front, and they set up a tent and they bring out their food they want to share.”

Starchuk said what the Sabharwal brothers are doing is a great idea, and the city is a partner on the initiative, contributing $5,000 for things like posters or leaflets.

He said his advisory committee wants to eventually move toward a ban of Styrofoam products for events like Vaisakhi, which would be aligned with Metro Vancouver’s goal of reducing the amount of the product that ends up in landfills.

Surrey’s Vaisakhi parade takes place April 21.

Landlords fear losing rights as housing advocates demand immediate action from rental task force Tenant advocates and landlords agree a task force is necessary to address the rental housing in Vancouver. But while the Vancouver Tenants’ Union wants immediate action on some of the most pressing issues facing those who rent, B.C.’s umbrella organization for landlords fears an erosion of property rights.

Derrick O’Keefe, a member of Vancouver Tenants’ Union, says the task force is long overdue. “We are taking this in good faith and hope that the government is doing this to be able to implement the actions that have long been necessary,” he told Gloria Macarenko, the guest host of CBC’s The Early Edition.

That action, O’Keefe said, will hopefully be a series of legislation changes to overhaul the Residential Tenancy Act, particularly regarding renovictions.

Landlords should have more responsibility for evicted tenants, says Maple Ridge, B.C., councillor “We need to disincentivize landlords getting tenants out so they can bring a new tenant in at a much higher rent,” he said.

“Sometimes governments have inquiries or task forces to delay doing things so we would like to see immediate action and a bill on

renovictions right away.”

“The opportunity here is to look at the broader issue not just in the context of the [Residential Tenancy Act] but look at what are all the factors that have gotten us to where we are at,” he said. When it comes to renovictions, Hutniak agreed it is a problem that needs to be addressed — but not by taking away landlords’ property rights.

“We do not endorse or support landlords that are deliberately taking advantage of the situation,” he said.

“But by the same token, owners of these buildings do have property rights and we want them to continue to invest in these properties.”

Upgrades, such as repairing an older building or improving seismic safety, are sometimes necessary and it’s not always economically feasible to see investment in a building without a rent increase, he said.

“At the end of the day, [renovations] needs to be done responsibility but the right to do it needs to continue to exist,” he said. “If you want to positively influence behaviour, you don’t keep using a stick. You need to employ some carrot.”

13

India’s ‘father of palliative care’ brings message of community compassion India’s “father of palliative care” is touring North America, spreading a message of compassion and how to involve the whole community in medical care.

Dr. M.R. Rajagopal, or Dr. Raj as he’s known to patients and colleagues, made two stops in British Columbia — in Victoria and Vancouver — to speak at palliative care events and screen a movie about his life’s work called Hippocratic: 18 Experiments in Gently Shaking the World.

The documentary refers to Greek physician Hippocrates’ belief that a doctor’s duty is to cure sometimes, treat often and to comfort always.

After 35 years, doctor says palliative care ‘one of the most rewarding things I’ve done’ Dr. Rajagopal is renowned for advocating for comfort and compassion above all.

“That’s something the global medical system seems to have forgotten completely,” he said.

“I can help my patients only if I can also persuade the medical system to be compassionate.”

The message in Dr. Rajagopal’s new film is that gentle actions can shake the world. (Screenshot from Hippocratic/Moonshine Agency ) Dr. Rajagopal, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, said the technological advances that have made diagnosis and treatment of so many diseases

possible is great but “aggressive disease-focused care” often doesn’t treat the pain of suffering.

“When I go into hospices, I find a lot of lonely people,” he said. “There are lonely aging people out there in the community also.”

A hospice for Diana: How palliative care soothed a life’s final days The documentary looks at the ethical use of modern medicine and attempts to break down some of the stigma surrounding opioids.

It comes at a time when attitudes toward pain relief have started to shift in North America in light of the overdose epidemic and over-prescription of opioid-based treatments.

Dr. Rajagopal is adamant that the medical care needs to be a partnership between doctors and the community at large.

“Our work is community oriented and with community participation,” Dr. Rajagopal said.

“In any community, there are kindhearted people who are willing to help others if we allow the community to get a bit of training on basic care and encourage them to come and help with caring for the elderly.”

Grassroots, community-based care has taken off in his home base of Kerala, in southern India, he said, and the same would be beneficial in B.C. communities.

14

IPL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

VIVO IPL 2018 is now streaming on Hotstar in North America starting April 7, 2018 With commentary in 6 Indian languages, cricket fans will experience the sport like never before Earlier this year, Hotstar announced that it is bringing VIVO Indian Premier League 2018 (VIVO IPL) to North American cricket fans as its official digital streaming partner. To celebrate this, Hotstar hosted the VIVO IPL Hotstar CricFest, a cricketing extravaganza at MatchPoint NYC in Brooklyn along with cricket legends Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

VIVO IPL 2018 is now streaming live on Hotstar beginning April 7th, expecting

the matches. Hotstar live-streamed the much awaited and much watched player auction event in January, followed by the fan interaction series Game Plan In Your City. In this unique initiative, players from the 8 franchise teams visited their cities along with sports experts

Experts for VIVO IPL 2018 speaking at Game Plan in Your City

to reach more than 700 million fans from all over the world who will tune in to watch their favorite teams compete in the biggest cricketing league in the world.

Hotstar has brought fans closer to the game with all the action in the run up to

to interact with fans on what can be expected from their favourite team this season.

Experts for VIVO IPL 2018 speaking at Game Plan in Your City

Now, cricket fans in the Canada will be able to access all the matches on Hotstar in real time with regionalized and expert commentary in six languagesEnglish, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali. Hotstar’s unique fan-graph feature will also allow viewers to track the number of simultaneous viewers and relive key moments during any game. Exclusive pre- and post-match shows will be made available via live stream. Those who miss any match can watch the entire game as a complete replay, along with highlights and other snackable content – all available as Video-On-Demand.

“Hotstar has re-imagined the VIVO IPL 2018 viewing experience for our North American cricket fans making it immersive and engaging through our technology, insights, and expertise in cricket coverage. Starting this month, the South Asian diaspora will be able to watch the sport on a platform that understands their love for the game, and connect to millions of fans back in India”, said Ipsita Dasgupta, President – Hotstar International, and Strategy and Incubation at Star India.

To access VIVO IPL and the best

of Indian entertainment across movies and TV shows, viewers can subscribe to Hotstar at ca.hotstar.com for a monthly fee of $12.99 (First 30 days free.

Offer subject to terms & conditions) About Hotstar Hotstar, India’s largest premium streaming platform for Indian TV shows, movies and live sports, is now also available in the US and Canada.

A subsidiary of Star India and 21st Century Fox, Hotstar was launched in India in 2015 and became the fastest app to reach a million downloads within a week of going live. The platform offers a bouquet of rich and diverse content encompassing the latest movies, popular TV shows, documentaries and live sports. By delivering premium, on-demand content across devices and in multiple languages, Hotstar ensures South Asians across the world are never too far from their favorite entertainment.

Hotstar can be accessed through us.hotstar.com, ca.hotstar.com or via iOS AppStore, Google Playstore, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, and Android TV.

Focus on rental housing in new Surrey Affordable Housing Strategy Surrey City Council adopted the Surrey Affordable Housing Strategy at this past Monday’s Regular Council meeting. Surrey has had a history of providing affordable housing options for both renter and owner households.

The new Strategy focuses on rental housing and provides a series of initiatives to increase and strengthen rental housing in the City.

“The need for affordable rental housing in Surrey is a critical component for creating a thriving and inclusive city” said Mayor Linda Hepner. “Our new Affordable Housing Strategy aligns with the planning of the Surrey Light Rail and improved Frequent Transit Network by ensuring that as urban areas develop they will include secure rental housing with better protection for renters.”

The Surrey Affordable Housing Strategy focuses on purpose-built market and non-market/social rental housing and includes recommendations to: 1. Prevent the Loss of Purpose-Built Rental · Adopt a one-for-one rental replacement policy for purpose-built rental housing units that are lost due to redevelopment.

2.

Strengthen Protection for Tenants · Develop a tenant protection and relocation policy to protect tenants who may be at risk of losing their housing through redevelopment.

3.

Encourage the Development of New Purpose-Built Rental Housing · Continue to fast-track the development approvals process and, in locations close to transit, reduce parking requirements.

LOCAL / NATIONAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

15

BC gov’t to give more rights and compensation to renovicted tenant Renters in British Columbia could soon have enhanced rights and compensation if evicted from homes when they’re renovated or demolished.

The Tenancy Statutes Amendment Act, , which contain a number of changes to the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act and Residential Tenancy Act, was introduced in the legislature Thursday For most tenants, the changes include the following: Four months notice, up from two, if a landlord evicts them to demolish, renovate, or convert the unit to a non-rental, non-housing or caretaker unit Thirty days

right-of-refusal in multi-unit buildings, at the market rate, when evictions happen because of renovation or repair. For tenants evicted from manufactured home parks because the park is being converted, there are the following changes: $20,000 in compensation from the landlord, instead of the current 12 months pad rental For homes that can’t be

notice, up from 15, to apply for dispute resolution in those cases A years’ worth of rental compensation, if an eviction is enacted in bad faith in those circumstances A first

New driver fined after passing other cars ‘as though they were stopped’ RCMP in Metro Vancouver say a driver allegedly travelling at 101 kilometres per hour above the posted speed limit was relieved of his vehicle for seven days and slapped with a host of driving infractions, costing hundreds in fines.

An RCMP officer conducting speed enforcement on Highway 1 in North Vancouver pulled over the driver earlier this month.

Mounties say in a news release that the officer spotted the vehicle passing other cars “as though they were stopped” and flagged it down.

Police say not only was the car travelling

181 kilometres per hour in an 80 km/h zone, but the novice driver also had two passengers with him, violating a condition of the licence.

The vehicle was impounded for a week and police say it was owned by a company that has been the subject of previous driving complaints.

Collisions due to speeding are a leading cause of injury and death on B.C. highways and police urge drivers to slow down but also warn that officers won’t hesitate to enforce traffic laws in order to keep roadways safe.

Captain of Tamil migrant ship MV Sun Sea loses first court battle to stop his deportation Nearly eight years after a derelict cargo ship carrying 492 Tamil migrants was intercepted off the coast of British Columbia, Canadian courts and refugee boards are still grappling with the aftermath — and the man who steered the ship is fighting to stay in the country.

In a new decision dated Mar. 8, 2018 but published online only recently, a Federal Court judge rejected an appeal by Lesly Emmanuel to overturn a deportation order that dates back seven years. Emmanuel exceeded the deadline to challenge it, the judge ruled, despite his request for an exception due to the battery of legal proceedings he’s gone through since Sun Sea passengers were detained in 2010.

The Immigration and Refugee Board first determined Emmanuel was inadmissible to Canada in September 2011. But before that progressed, he was criminally charged in June 2012 with facilitating human smuggling for having captained the ship. Emmanuel protested that he was one of the few passengers with naval training and had only taken over the ship’s command after its Thai crew abandoned it off the coast of Thailand. He said he steered it to Canada for humanitarian reasons, not for any material benefit. The criminal case against him was then paused while the Supreme Court of Canada dealt with a related case. It ruled in 2015 that Canada’s human smuggling laws were overly broad, and shouldn’t be applied to people acting for humanitarian reasons.

The trial for Emmanuel and three other Sri Lankans finally started in October 2016.

The jury found him not guilty, accepting his evidence that he took over the ship to save the lives of those on board.In February 2017, he then sought judicial review of his deportation order, arguing that the 2015 Supreme Court case meant the immigration board had wrongly decided he was inadmissible. But such applications are supposed to be filed within 15 days of the decision; Emmanuel’s was filed five and a half years later. The MV Sun Sea arrived

off the B.C. coast with 492 Sri Lankan migrants on board in August 2010. In his decision, Chief Justice Paul Crampton ruled that the criminal proceedings did not qualify as a good enough reason for exempting Emmanuel from the deadline, given the application could have been filed in the nine months between the deportation order and the laying of criminal charges, or even immediately after the 2015 Supreme Court decision. He noted that other Sun Sea passengers who had been ruled inadmissible filed challenges immediately, well before the Supreme Court ruling.

moved, compensation covering the assessed value (minus $20,000) “Today’s Residential Tenancy Act amendments are a step in the right direction — particularly the decision to increase the penalty against landlords who abuse vacate clauses and “landlord’s use” of eviction notices,” said Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre executive director Andrew Sakomoto in a statement.

16

LOCAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Single father alleges Surrey landlord forced him out illegally

Youth and adults from Westside Church Vancouver visiting India Cutural Centre of Canada Gurdwara Nanak Niwas in Richmond. Pictured above are members of the Gurdwara Management Committee with guests from the Church.

A single father in Surrey, B.C. is alleging the owner of a condo unit he was renting forced him out of his home illegally and won’t return his belongings.

Brandon Fielding said he was home sick Wednesday in his apartment in the Sunwest Estates on 103A Avenue in Guildford when one of the landlord’s business partners showed up to do some renovation work in the unit. Fielding claims the man hung around until about 5:30 p.m., when he left to pick up his daughter from school.

When he got back shortly after 6 p.m., Fielding alleges the landlord and another man had changed the locks and wouldn’t let him into his apartment.

“I went inside and went upstairs and the landlord and his step-brother or some sort of family relation were they and said, ‘Nope. We’re changing the locks. You’re not allowed in,’” he said. “At that point, I was upset. My daughter was crying. All I wanted to do is go in and feed her and play.” Fielding said spent the rest of the evening in the lobby of the building. He said he called police on three occasions, triggering what he described as heated confrontations between the landlord and law enforcement.

“They were belligerent with police—yelling at them,” he said. “At one point, my landlord was in handcuffs because they just couldn’t take the yelling anymore.” Officers were ultimately unable to help Fielding get back into his home or even retrieve his belongings.

The building’s property manager said he tried to vouch for the tenant, and was disappointed that the officers who showed up didn’t do more to help him.

“I was shocked the police acted in this way.

They were nice, but their decision to throw (Fielding) out on the street, especially (when) he’s pleading he has nowhere to go, he has a young daughter, it was touching,” he said.

According to Fielding, the landlord said he would start moving his things out of the condo at 8 a.m. the following morning. Police advised Fielding to be there early and call them so they could supervise the move and make sure he got his possessions back, but the landlord allegedly refused to give him any of his things. “I have nothing…I had to go buy new shoes, new clothes. I have absolutely nothing,” he said, adding that he has no idea where the clothes, food, furniture, toys and other items that were in the home are.

Fielding is now paying nearly $130 a night to stay in a nearby hotel.

“Because these guys decided to go about things in a roundabout way and find some gray area where they could get away with it, they caused me to be homeless,” he said.

According to documents from the Residential Tenancy Branch, the condo’s original owner, Tim Karajaoaj, recently sold the unit. The new owner was set to take possession on Thursday.

Karajaoaj had issued Fielding an eviction notice in early January, giving him a month to move out. The form, however, was not filled in correctly, and Karajaoaj later issued a second eviction notice, this time giving Fielding two months to vacate the property.

The landlord testified to the RTB that the new owner wanted the unit to be empty when they took possession. Fielding, however, took the matter to the RTB and was able to get both eviction notices overturned by an arbitrator who found that the one-month notice was incomplete and that the landlord had not provided enough evidence to prove the second one was warranted. “I order that both the One Month Notice and the Two Month Notice be cancelled and that the tenancy continue in full force and effect until it is ended in accordance with the Act,” the arbitrator wrote, also granting him $100 off April’s rent, which Fielding has already paid, even though he only spent four days of the month in his apartment.

Fielding alleges that’s when Karajaoaj took matters into his own hands. In a statement to CTV News, the Ministry of Municipal Affair and Housing acknowledged the landlord’s alleged actions are against the law, but said the province has little recourse until Fielding files another complaint with the RTB, which could take up to a month before it’s even put in front of an arbitrator.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

DREAM CARPET

17

18

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Nagar Kirtan parade in Burnaby

The annual Nagar Kirtan parade was held in Burnaby last weekend, with crowds coming out to enjoy the music and festivities.

The parade began at the Shri Ravidass Sabha Temple on Gilley, and traveled along Rumble, Royal Oak, Imperial, McPherson and Beresford.

2 VPD officers arrested on vacation in Cuba Two B.C. police officers — one from the Vancouver Police Department and one from Port Moody — were arrested while in Cuba during a vacation in March. The officers were arrested in connection with an incident involving the alleged assault of a 17-year-old female. The Port Moody officer was released but remains in Cuba, said Sgt. Travis Carroll in a news release from the Port Moody Police Department. “[We] take all allegations of misconduct concerning our officers very seriously,” said Carroll in the release.

The status of the Vancouver officer remains unclear.

The matter was referred to the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner.

Deputy Commissioner Rollie Woods said police alerted his office, which is awaiting more detailed information before deciding on whether or not to order an investigation.

“Members are accountable for their conduct at all times and anywhere they happen to be and are subject to investigation and discipline, if it is appropriate, pursuant to the Police Act,” he said.

Woods also said he believes the Port Moody officer was detained as a witness.

“My understanding is the person or the officer that may be in some jeopardy for his actions there was the Vancouver member,” he said, noting that his office has been given very little information and is still confirming details.

Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay said in an interview Thursday that his police department has been in touch with the officer’s family and was told both officers had their passports confiscated “a few weeks ago.”

The Port Moody officer is being held as a material witness, Clay said.

“Unfortunately, what we’re told is that investigations move quite slowly and, in fact, we’ve been told that it could be up to 60 days before he might be allowed to leave the country,” he said.

Consular officials also confirmed they are assisting the two officers and are in touch with local authorities, but could not say more due to privacy considerations.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

NATIONAL

19

20

LOCAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Vancouver city council looking at proposal to open voting to permanent residents A motion that Vancouver city council may vote on next week would call for the vote in municipal elections to be extended to Canadian permanent residents.

Under provincial election laws, to vote in a municipal election in B.C., one must be at least 18 years old, have lived in the province for at least six months, not be disqualified by law and be a Canadian citizen.

The motion, proposed by Coun. Andrea Remier, argues: “Permanent residency is a first step to Canadian citizenship.

Allowing Permanent Residents to vote in

municipal elections is important for the confidence and trust in our democracy.”

Citizenship isn’t just an oath, she notes, adding that permanent residents are often “active members of Vancouver’s communities.”

They’re taxpayers, parents of school children and users and ratepayers of city facilities.

They “have the same responsibilities as citizens but not the same opportunity to affect decisions directly at a municipal level.”

Reimer told Postmedia on Wednesday that she’d been thinking of ways to improve civic engagement for some time but that a study from

the Vancouver Foundation last fall — and that she read about in the Vancouver Sun — proved to be a catalyst “for me to get off my butt.”

The Vancouver Foundation study found that only nine per cent of residents had participated in a neighbourhood or community project, a big decline from 2012, when 23 per cent had answered yes to the same question.

According to Reimer, there are 60,000 permanent residents in Vancouver, which is equivalent to about a third of the total number of voters in the 2014 municipal election.

“These people have the same obligations (as citizens who can vote),” she said. Giving

them the franchise could help people feel more connected to their community.

“Ten per cent of Vancouver cannot vote.”

And since municipal governments don’t deal with issues of immigration or national defence, just with issues of direct local importance, she said she didn’t see there being worries about having non-citizens voting.

If the motion passes, it would call on the provincial government to amend B.C.’s voting laws to allow for permanent residents to vote, which is a right held by people in similar legal status in 45 countries around the world, the proposal claims (including seven jurisdictions in the U.S.

BC NDP denies pipeline war distracting it from major legislation New Democrat government has reached the mid-point of its spring session without introducing any major legislation, leading the Opposition to speculate it may be distracted by the Kinder Morgan pipeline battle.

Premier John Horgan warned earlier this year how busy the spring with complex laws on legal marijuana distribution and caps on pain and suffering insurance claims for minor automobile accidents.

Instead, the 11-week legislature session reached the halfway mark on Wednesday without a sign of either bill and only a handful of relatively minor pieces of legislation on the books.

“It’s quite surprising that here we are going to round out this week and still we have really not seen much of any substance,” said Opposition house leader Mary Polak.

Polak pointed to a highprofile political disputes that have monopolized much of the Horgan government’s time, including its attempt to delay the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion through court actions that now face retaliation from the Alberta and federal governments.

“One has to think that plays a role in this,” said Polak. “I suspect there’s something else in play too, and that is when you look at some issues and their caucus, I think they’re having some difficulty coming to agreement, too, within their own caucus. I think that’s likely stalled them.

“I know when you are in government, you can really slow down legislation when you can’t bring your caucus together on an issue. We’re seeing that on Kinder Morgan.”

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Liberal Minister may face inquiry for failure to disclose Aga Khan vacation with PM to ethics commissioner The federal ethics commissioner may investigate Liberal cabinet minister Seamus O’Regan for failing to disclose a vacation to the Aga Khan’s private island.

In December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was found to have violated federal conflict-of-interest and ethics rules by accepting an all-expenses-paid vacation to a Bell Cay, a private island in the Bahamas owned by the Aga Khan, two winters ago.

O’Regan and his husband were guests of the Trudeau family during the December 2016 trip, first revealed by the National Post, which was organized by Trudeau’s wife Sophie and the Aga Khan’s daughter. But the now-Veterans Affairs Minister didn’t disclose the gift to the ethics commissioner and was never scrutinized by the commissioner’s office for potential conflicts-of-interest.

“I have received a request for information from the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner regarding a preliminary

review and I will continue to cooperate fully with any requests from his office,” O’Regan said in a statement to the Post on Wednesday.

“As I have stated previously, the trip in question was a personal vacation and when I returned from that vacation, I reported it to the Commissioner’s office.”

Finding Trudeau guilty of rule-breaking was previous ethics commissioner Mary Dawson’s last act. With new ethics commissioner Mario Dion looking to set the stage for his mandate, NDP MP Charlie Angus said he saw an opportunity to request an investigation that he had been “thinking about for some time.”

“Seamus never registered his trip to the Aga Khan’s island and I thought that was really odd,” he told the Post on Tuesday. “It just doesn’t square, how the prime minister could be held guilty of breaching, breaking the code of ethics, and the person who travelled with them hasn’t

Canadians warned to climb out of debt before it’s too late, as threat of cooling housing markets looms Scott Hannah says low borrowing costs and rising home prices have lured Canadians into a debt trap they may not escape if looming economic threats materialize.

Hannah, president of the Credit Counselling Society, is seeing an influx of clients as higher financing costs begin to bite and people find it harder to manage. Phone calls were up 5.3 per cent in the first quarter from a year earlier, while online chats increased 40 per cent.

He says with debt loads at a record and little in the way of savings to fall back on, Canadians may be “caught off guard” if housing markets cool significantly or North American Free Trade Agreement talks go sideways.

“We’ve been in a perfect storm for a number of years” where low interest rates encourage borrowing and discourage saving, Hannah, 60, said by phone from the Vancouver suburb of New Westminster. “People have been lulled into a false sense of security.”

Hannah’s organization can help people set up a debt management program or find a licensed insolvency trustee. He’s sounding the alarm as rising interest rates and

stricter borrowing rules threaten to squeeze households even further. The Bank of Canada is expected to raise its benchmark rate twice more this year and its next decision is April 18. Hannah’s colleagues dubbed him “Dr. Debt” after he received an honorary degree in 2012 from University Canada West, a private business school, for his “distinguished service in the field of credit counseling.” Prior to establishing the non-profit, registered charity in 1996, he worked for 11 years at Equifax Canada, a credit reporting company, but decided “a nice title and a good salary doesn’t make you happy,” so he left to find something that “made a difference.” He found it by helping people get relief from their creditors.

As Hannah tells it, during the early 1990s, the provincial debtor assistance program in British Columbia was cutting back just as bankruptcy rates were rising. A group of banks, credit unions and department stores tried and failed to establish a complementary service. Hannah offered to raise the necessary funds, so long as he was allowed to run the organization.

Former Ontario political aide gets four months jail for deleted gas plant emails A plot to delete documents about the Ontario government’s pre-election cancellation of two gas plants struck at the heart of the democratic process, a judge said Wednesday as he sentenced a former top political aide to four months in jail.

The crime committed by David Livingston, chief of staff to former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty, was extremely serious and demands proper denunciation, Ontario court Judge Timothy Lipson said.

“His conduct was an affront to, and an attack upon, democratic institutions and values,” Lipson said. “An attempt to tamper with the democratic process requires a strong denunciatory response.”

Lipson also sentenced Livingston, 65, a firsttime offender with an otherwise exemplary record of private and public service, to 12 months probation, including 100 hours of community service. Livingston was led from court in handcuffs.

Defence lawyer Brian Gover said outside court that his client would appeal both conviction and sentence, and denounced

the punishment meted out to Livingston, a married father and grandfather. “That is a harsh and excessive sentence in the circumstances of this case where there was no proof of actual harm,” Gover said. “You can imagine how upsetting this is for all of them.”

In passing sentence, Lipson said Livingston had directed the indiscriminate wiping of hard drives in the premier’s office in a deliberate effort at sparing the government embarrassment over its costly decision to scrap two gas plants ahead of the 2011 provincial election.

The document destruction occurred against express warnings from alarmed senior bureaucrats and amid deception by Livingston as to his real intentions, Lipson noted.

The sentencing in the politically sensitive case comes just two months ahead of a general election in which Ontario voters will cast judgment on McGuinty’s successor, Premier Kathleen Wynne, who has not been directly implicated in the gas plants scandal although she was a cabinet minister at the time.

NATIONAL

21

22

INDIA

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Prerogative of CJI to allocate cases, rules SC The Chief Justice of India is the “first among equals” and occupies a unique position having the “exclusive prerogative” to allocate cases and set up Benches to hear cases, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

The verdict assumed significance as it came in the backdrop of the January 12 unprecedented press conference of the seniormost judges, including Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, raising the issue of improper allocation of cases.

Former law minister Shanti Bhushan has also recently filed a PIL seeking clarification on the administrative authority of the CJI as the ‘master of roster’ and laying down of principles in preparing the roster for allocation of cases to Benches.

“In his capacity as a judge, the CJI is primus inter pares: the first among equals. In the discharge of his other functions, the Chief

Justice of India occupies a position which is sui generis (unique)... Article 146 reaffirms the position of the CJI as the head of the institution.

“From an institutional perspective, the Chief Justice is placed at the helm of the Supreme Court. In the allocation of cases and the constitution of Benches, the Chief Justice has an exclusive prerogative,” a Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said.

Dismissing a PIL filed by lawyer Ashok Pande seeking a “set procedure” to constitute Benches and allot cases, the Bench said that as a “repository of constitutional trust, the Chief Justice is an institution in himself ”.

“The ultimate purpose behind the entrustment of authority to the CJI is to ensure that the Supreme Court is able to fulfil and discharge the constitutional obligations which govern and provide the rationale for its existence,” it said.

Navigation satellite INRSS-1I put into orbit The Indian Space Research Organisation’s navigation satellite INRSS-1I was on Thursday launched by PSLV-C41 from the spaceport here and successfully placed in the designated orbit.

Mission blasted off at 4.04 am from the first launchpad at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre. It was a normal lift-off, ISRO officials said.

The workhorse, PSLV, injected the satellite into orbit 19 minutes after lift-off from the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre here.

ISRO Chairman K Sivan described the mission as a success and congratulated the scientists behind it. He said IRNSS-1I was successfully placed in the designated orbit.

IRNSS-1I is expected to replace IRNSS-

1A, the first of the seven navigation satellites, that was rendered ineffective after its three rubidium atomic clocks failed. The seven satellites are part of the NavIC navigation satellite constellation.

The previous mission of a PSLV carrying IRNSS-1H in August last year failed after the heat shield covering the satellite failed to separate.

The IRNSS-1I mission takes place two weeks after the space agency launched GSAT-6A on board GSLV MkII. Though the rocket placed GSAT-6A in orbit, the ISRO lost communication with the satellite within two days.

Forme Bihar Chief Minister’s wife Rabri and her sons refuse state security Former Bihar CM Rabri Devi and her two sons, Tejaswi and Tej Pratap Yadav, on Wednesday “returned” their state security cover, protesting withdrawal of guards from her residence here.

The government withdrew 32 personnel of the Bihar Military Police posted at 10 Circular Road — the official residence of

Rabri Devi and her husband Lalu Prasad — after the CBI raided the place on Tuesday in connection with a IRCTC hotel tender case.

“After a few hours of questioning, the government withdrew guards from our residence in Patna. If the house guards are withdrawn, we don’t require personal security cover as well,” Rabri said.

Dalit man killed ‘for owning horse’ A young farmer from the lowest rung of India’s caste hierarchy - the Dalit community has been beaten to death, apparently for owning and riding a horse. Police in Gujarat state said three upper-caste men had been detained for questioning. The victim’s father said his son had been warned not to ride the horse as this was an upper-caste privilege. Owning a horse is seen as a symbol of power and wealth in parts of India. A senior police officer said other possible motives had not been ruled out.

What is India’s caste system?

Pradeep Rathod, 21, was found dead in a pool of blood near Timbi village in Gujarat

state late on Thursday. The horse was also found dead nearby, his father said. In a complaint filed to police, his father said his son had loved horses so he had bought him one. “My son’s love for horses led to his murder,” the father said according to AFP news agency, which has seen the statement. “About a week ago, when I was riding the horse with my son, one of the persons from the upper caste Kshatriya [warrior] community warned us not to ride the horse in the village. “He said that people of Dalit community cannot ride horses, only Kshatriyas can ride horses.

Debt-ridden farmer ends life, blames Modi govt A suicide note by a farmer blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for the extreme step set off a political storm in Maharashtra on Wednesday.

According to police, Shankar Bhaurao Chawre, a 55-year old farmer from Rajurwadi village in Ghatanji tehsil of Yavatmal district, committed suicide on Tuesday by drinking pesticide. A six-page suicide note recovered from his possession said Chawre was suffering from a loan burden of nearly

Rs4 lakh and he had lost his cotton crop to a bollworm attack, which would worsen his financial situation. “I am committing suicide because of the loans and the Narendra Modi government is responsible for my suicide,” the note said. According to the police, Chawre first tried to hang himself but after the rope snapped he drank some pesticide. The farmer was rushed to a hospital but died on Tuesday afternoon. Chawre’s relatives refused to accept his body and demanded compensation from the government.

PUNJAB

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Capt resolves dispute over realty project Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday intervened to resolve a dispute pertaining to a Mohali housing project.

Over 40 sitting and former legislators had reportedly paid Rs 13.38 crore to two land developers for buying land for the project.

The latter allegedly diverted the money to fund 2014 Punjab movie, ‘Jatt Risky’.

These leaders include Lal Singh, Madan Lal Jalalpur, Brahm Mohindra, Harchand Kaur and Ajit Inder Singh Mofar. Ghanaur MLA Jalalpur is the president of the Seven

Star Welfare Society. Members of the society got suspicious after they did not get the land promised to them in Sector 113-14 on the Kharar-Landran road. Subsequently, they stopped payments.

In the new agreement between the two parties, the developers have agreed to return the money in the form of showrooms and other properties in a housing project on the Mohali-Landran road. Sources said two SSPs, acting on the CM’s directions, played a key role during the negotiations.

Govt waives Rs 52-cr debt of SCs, BCs The state government has cleared an amount of Rs 52 crore to give debt waiver to 14,260 people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and 1,630 belonging to the Backward Classes, said Punjab Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Minority Welfare Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot here on Wednesday.

The minister said the debt-ridden SC and BC people who had taken loans from the Punjab Scheduled Castes Land Development and Finance Corporation (PSCFC) and Punjab Backward Classes Land Development and Finance Corporation (BackFinco) would get a waiver of Rs 50,000. The beneficiaries included defaulters and those who were paying instalments. He announced that the

Jakhar leaves CM’s office in anger over his cell phone Asked by security personnel to deposit his mobile handset at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) in the Punjab Civil Secretariat here, state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar left the place in a huff without meeting the CM on Wednesday. Later, he switched off his mobile phone and reportedly flew back to New Delhi.

All efforts to contact Jakhar proved futile.

His personal secretary, Sanjeev Trikha, said he was not aware of the incident, while claiming that he was not accompanying the PPCC chief here. A senior MLA, who witnessed the incident, said when Jakhar and other legislators arrived for a scheduled meeting with the Chief Minister, the security staff asked him to first deposit his cellphone. Some Cabinet ministers were also present at that time. After handing over his phone, Jakhar waited for a while before taking it back

CM talks tough, tells top cops to keep order or face music In a short but stern lecture to the topranking officers of the Punjab Police, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Wednesday warned that those indulging in indiscipline might even face dismissal.

He said DGP Suresh Arora was the boss and reminded the officers that the government had not even let Arora take up a central government posting.

The meeting was called in the wake of recent accusations made by senior officers against each other.

Clearly upset at the recent incidents, Capt Amarinder said he had been getting a hollow feeling over the last few days.

“What is happening today is not only in an extremely bad taste, but also highly detrimental to the interests of Punjab,” he said. Pointing out that as an ex-Army man he had seen from close quarters how discipline was maintained in the forces, the CM called for serious introspection by the officers for the sake of the force and the state.

government would give a debt waiver of Rs 125 crore to poor people and the waiver would be initiated on April 14 (the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar) when Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh would distribute debt-relief certificates to the tune of Rs 52 crore during a state-level function at Jalandhar.

23

27 Punjabis trapped in UAE, Saudi Arabia AAAA Duped by travel agents in the name of work visa, one youth from Bholath has been missing from Dubai for the last five months while another 27 Punjabi youths have been allegedly trapped in UAE and Saudi Arabia for several weeks now. Chief spokesperson for AAP Harjot Singh Bains in a letter to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has urged her to intervene in the matter so that no valuable life is lost. He said the youths had sent some videos showing their pitiable plight in the foreign land. The family of the missing youth, Khushwinder Singh, resident of Bholath, Kapurthala, said while they were trying their level best to search for him, they had got no help from the Punjab government or the police. His sister Satinderjit Kaur Taggar said the police had not even registered an FIR against the accused travel agent. “My brother had gone to Dubai in May last year through a Ludhiana-based travel agent, who assured that

he would get a lucrative job soon. However, my brother learnt after two months in Dubai that he had not received requisite papers as promised and is missing since November.”

Taggar said the agent had since then gone into hiding. “We suspect foul play as my brother was upset when he was told he will have to go back.

He talked to us last on November 14, 2017.” Harjot Singh Bains told The Tribune that most of the 27 trapped youths were from Nawanshahar, especially Banga.

He said four youths belonging to Himachal Pradesh were also trapped in UAE and Saudi Arabia.

He said, “Ï have sent the list of the youths with their passport numbers to the External Affairs Minister. All the youths were promised well-paying jobs and long work visa but they have been taken for a ride. They are now being treated as slaves by their employers who have confiscated their passports also.”

24

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Ascend Canada recognizes five leaders at 5th Annual Leadership Awards Gala T&T Supermarket CEO Tina Lee named Executive of the Year Tina Lee, the Chief Executive Officer of T&T Supermarkets, was among five individuals recognized for their personal dedication, career achievement, and contributions to the community at the 5th Annual Ascend Canada Leadership Awards.

Earlier this month, Lee was named Executive of the Year by Ascend Canada, a non-profit organization with a mission to develop and advance Pan-Asian talent.

Sponsored by TD, this award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to their organization; delivering business results, demonstrating leadership and being at the forefront of innovation. In 2014, Lee took the reins of the family business, the largest Asian grocery retailer in Canada. Under her leadership, the business has focused on growing their roots, and now set to expand its

head office and open four new stores by the end of the 2018, bringing T&T’s total store count to 27. In February 2017, she was named to the Canada-US Council for the Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders.

“Leadership is about being purpose driven and people oriented. T&T is so much more than just selling bananas and bok choy,” she said as she accepted her award.

“We work hard to identify and amplify the emotional connection we have with our customers, and to make ‘Celebrate the Orient’ come to life.” On stage and eight months pregnant, Tina said she has much to celebrate. The award coincides with the birth of her third baby and T&T’s 25th anniversary.

Ascend Canada hosts the annual awards as a way to celebrate leaders, as well as showcase Pan-Asian talent. The organization is working

hard, particularly with its 18 corporate partners, to ensure diversity and inclusion isn’t an afterthought.

As a 100% volunteer-driven nonprofit organization, members of Ascend Canada are passionate about advancing inclusion.

Ascend Canada reserves a spot on the gala stage for one of its own, and this year, the honours went to Avni Shah. She was recognized for her enthusiasm, passionate and generous dedication as part of Ascend Canada’s Operations group. She has worn several volunteer hats, one of which was to teach English to children in Guatemala. Avni is part of the TD Securities Internal Audit team.

Three other winners were recognized during the gala, each with extraordinary stories that inspire and make an impact to their communities: t 'BIBE 5BSJR XBT UIF SFDJQJFOU of the Rising Star Award. Sponsored by RBC, this award recognizes an individual under-30 years of age who has demonstrated early leadership qualities through personal performance and commitment to professional, volunteer, and educational opportunities.

Tariq works as a Senior Associate in Equity Research at BMO Capital Markets, covering Fertilizer & Chemical stocks. He is also the Founder of Shift, a nonprofit energy initiative that converts animal waste into reliable, inexpensive energy in developing countries. t 4BNSB ;BGBS XBT SFDPHOJ[FE BT UIF Mentor of the Year. Sponsored by Manulife, this award recognizes a Pan-Asian individual who has provided significant guidance and leadership to an employee or several employees’ quality of life and professional development.

Having fought her own battles of an arranged marriage, Samra has overcome major challenges to gain educational, personal and professional success and has become a source of inspiration to others. In addition to a successful career at RBC, she is Founder & Executive Director at Brave Beginnings, a Governor at University of Toronto, an author and international speaker.

t +BIBO[BJC "OTBSJ JT UIF JOBVHVSBM recipient of the Ascend Canada Innovator of the Year Award, which recognizes an individual who has used disruption and innovation to contribute to community and benefit the society in Canada. He is Co-Founder & CEO of Knockri, an IBM-backed artificial intelligence video recruiting tool that promises to disperse unconscious hiring biases. In 2015, Jahanzaib`s previous venture Sartoria Darzi, a fashion artisan tailoring house for men, was ranked as among the top 10 made to measure brands in Toronto.

Kelvin Tran, the president of Ascend Canada, says it’s important to celebrate leaders, particularly those of Pan-Asian descent, in order to create role models for tomorrow’s leaders now.

“We’re looking to shatter the barriers that limit us and provide leadership without ceilings. Leadership is about developing critical skills, sharing and solving challenges, and making diversity and inclusion a priority. It is important to recognize leaders and learn from their journey and be inspired. It takes a village and many years to develop leaders. I want the next generation to say ‘if they can do it, so can I.’” About Ascend Canada Ascend Canada is a non-profit organization with a mission to develop and advance panAsian talent through partnership with other Canadian and like-minded organizations.

With over 3,000 members and many corporate partners across a wide cross-section of industries, Ascend Canada is committed to offering members strategic professional development programs and unparalleled access to key decision makers and senior executives.

For more information on Ascend Canada, visit ascendleadership.ca.

SOUTH ASIA

India, Bangladesh sign 130km oil pipeline deal Bangladesh and India signed an agreement here on Monday on their proposed nearly 130km oil pipeline aimed at pumping Indian oil to Bangladesh with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum.

The deal was part of the six memorandum of understandings (MoUs) which Dhaka and New Delhi signed during a meeting between their foreign secretaries in Dhaka, Xinhua news agency reported.

Indian foreign secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale arrived here on Sunday to hold talks with senior Bangladeshi officials on a host of bilateral and regional issues.

“Today, we add another six documents to our large and growing list of meaningful agreements signed during the recent visits of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi to Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India,” Gokhale said.

The documents included the implementation MoU on the friendship pipeline between Numaligarh in Assam and Parbatipur in Bangladesh, an MoU on cooperation between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh Betar, an MoU for setting up an ICCR Urdu Chair in Dhaka University and an Addendum to the GCNEP-BAEC Interagency Agreement, bdnews24.com reported.

Both sides signed two more MoUs to set up language labs in 500 schools in Bangladesh and upgrade roads in Rangpur city. “This is part of our endeavour to undertake projects in Bangladesh in various socioeconomic sectors including education, culture,

Over 2,000 Tamil Nadu fishermen chased away

by Sri Lankan navy Over 2,000 Tamil Nadu fishermen were allegedly chased away and nets of around 20 boats snapped by the Sri Lankan Navy while they were fishing near Katchatheevu, a fishermen association leader said today.

The fishermen from this island town had ventured into sea in 434 boats and were fishing off Katchatheevu islet last night when the Sri Lankan naval personnel reached the spot and snapped the fishing nets of

20 boats before chasing them away, Rameswaram Fishermen Association President, P Sesuraja alleged.

When Pakistan does title would be “Indian fishermen”, when Srilanka does title is “Tamil Nadu fishermen”.. Why Hypocrisy?? So many “Tamil Nadu (Indian) fishermen” kill... Read MoreNagendira On March 3, more than 2,500 fisherfolks from here were allegedly chased away by the Lankan Navy while they were fishing near Katchatheevu.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

25

Experience the freedom to stream, snap, surf, post and upload on fast LTE. Get 10GB of data and unlimited global text, picture and video messaging for only $50/month.

For details, visit freedommobile.ca.

*Learn more at freedommobile.ca. Data allotments available for use only on the Freedom Mobile home network. Applicable taxes extra. All Freedom Mobile services are subject to our Terms of Service, Fair Usage Policy and Privacy Policy located at freedommobile.ca. The Freedom Mobile name and logos and other words, titles, phrases, marks, logos, icons, graphics are trademarks of, or are used under license by, Freedom Mobile Inc.

26

Saturday, April 14, 2018

UP TO

8plus8 B[right] Term Deposit Cashable at 8 months SECURE YOUR TERM RATE TODAY!

You deserve ďŹ nancial conďŹ dence

*Limited time offer, terms and conditions apply. 16 month term, rate climbs to 3.25% after eight months.

Speak with a G&F expert to secure your rate today!

Sowaran Dhillion

604-419-8888 gffg.com/8plus8

Kam Mokha

Business Relationship Branch Manager Manager Willoughby

Richmond Centre 604-549-5410 604-549-5363

Jagjit Pandher Branch Manager

Nordel 604-549-5310

Anand Sharma Financial Planner 604-549-5382

Ranjit Sandhu Associate Vice President Cloverdale 604-549-5350

Peter Unadkat Associate Vice President South Burnaby 604-517-5160

27

Saturday, April 14, 2018

*2%,1 2 ' 6$59$ $ $5 6&&+22/ .* » *5$$'( ((AN INDEPPENDENT SCHOOL APPPROVED AND A FUNDE D BY MINIISTRY OF EDUCATION N, B.C.) 88200 – 168 STRREET SURRREY BC V44N 6G7

Ph: 604-930-22122

em mail: info@ @gobindsaarvar.ca,

websitte: www.goobindsarvaar.ca

REGGISTRATIOON OPEN FOR SESSSION 20188-19 REGGISTER NOW FOR: PRE SCHHOOL, KIINDERGAARTEN TO GRADE 9 GOBBIND SARVAAR SCHOOLL is serving the t communnity since Seeptember 20016 in a braand new buillding. Gradee 9 wiill also be addded in Septtember 2018.

GOBBIND SARVAAR SCHOOLL is centrallyy located forr all commuunities of Lowwer Mainlannd and Fraser Valley incluuding Langleey and Abbootsford. Buss service is provided p in aall these areeas.

GOBBIND SARVAAR SCHOOLL provides hiigh standardds of academ mic educatioon with afforrdable tuitioon fees (onlyy $90 per month). m All teachers t aree fully certifified by Minisstry of Educcation, BC GOBBIND SARVAAR SCHOOLL has dedicatted group of o young voluunteers teacching Punjabbi, Kirtan, GGatka and Sikhh History to more than 600 6 studentts during aftternoon andd weekend cclasses.

GOBBIND SARVAAR SCHOOLL takes pridee in offeringg a great spoorts program m to our youung generattion.

GOBBIND SARVAAR SCHOOLL is acceptingg registratioons for gradees KG to 9. Register yoour child as soon as posssible for sesssion 2018-19 as seats arre limited.

Please contact c the t schoool office for f further details or visit our webbsite.

28

FIJI

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Flood alert still in force for different parts of Fiji A flood alert is still in force for different parts of the country after continuous heavy rain last night. The Nadi Weather Office confirms this morning that a flood alert remains in force for the low lying areas, small streams and areas adjacent to all major rivers in Vanua Levu and Taveuni.

There is also a flood alert for areas adjacent to downstream of Waimanu to Nausori Town, Nabukelevu to Navua Town and Vatukacevaceva to Rakiraki Town.

The heavy rain being experienced in some areas is caused by a trough of low pressure with associated cloud and rain that remains slow moving over the eastern and northern parts of Fiji.

The Nadi Weather Office says this trough of low pressure is expected to affect the country till later this evening.

A heavy rain warning is also in force for Vanua Levu, Taveuni and nearby smaller islands, Lau and Lomaiviti Group.

Clean up of Ba Town continues after flooding The Ba Town Council is working tirelessly with the National Fire Authority to quickly clean Ba Town and works are expected to finish by today.

CEO, Dip Narayan says the municipal market area has been cleaned and they are now focusing on the Central Business District.

Ba Town is the worst affected because flood

#106 - 7565 132 St. Surrey, BC 604.572.3005

waters have entered the town three times since April 1st, causing severe damage to over 200 businesses in the main street and also damaging market vendors’ stocks.

It will take some time for Ba to recover and damage assessments are underway which Narayan says will run into millions.

Man jailed 10 years for raping his niece A 57-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the Labasa High Court for raping his niece.

Judge Justice Daniel Goundar stated that the 17-year-old girl had gone to reside with her uncle in a village in Labasa to attend school.

The man raped the girl on 30th August and

30th October in 2008.

The man told the girl to accompany him to the cassava plantation where he threatened the girl and raped her.

Justice Goundar stated that the man threatened to commit suicide and used his authority to sexually abuse the girl to prevent her from complaining.

Woman charged with $117,565.59 fraud A 25-year-old woman charged with conversion has been remanded by the Suva Magistrates Court.

It is alleged that whilst being employed by Discount Flight Centre as a travel consultant, Sherly Chand received ticket money to the total value of $117,565.59 and failed to invoice, receipt and bank it.

Chand is alleged to have fraudulently converted the money to her own personal use and benefit.

Magistrate Waleen George has transferred the matter to the Chief Magistrate as she knew Chand. The matter has been adjourned to Monday.

Man jailed 8 years for raping 12 years old girl A 25-year-old woman charged with conversion has been remanded by the Suva Magistrates Court.

It is alleged that whilst being employed by Discount Flight Centre as a travel consultant, Sherly Chand received ticket money to the total value of $117,565.59 and failed to invoice, receipt and bank it.

Chand is alleged to have fraudulently converted the money to her own personal use and benefit.

Magistrate Waleen George has transferred the matter to the Chief Magistrate as she knew Chand. The matter has been adjourned to Monday.

PAKISTAN

Saturday, April 14, 2018

29

Supreme Court rules in historic verdict

Former PM Sharif’s disqualification is for life Supreme Court on Friday ruled that disqualification of lawmakers under Article 62(1) (f) of the Constitution disqualification is permanent. Former PM Nawaz Sharif and opposition leader Jahangir Khan Tareen were also disqualified under the same provision of the constitution. A five-member larger bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, announced the reserved verdict in the cases involving interpretation, determination of the question of temporary or permanent bar on the parliamentarians to contest elections. The verdict was read out by Justice Umar Ata Bandia in the courtroom 1.

According to the Supreme Court decision, the constitution declares a person disquieted for life who is not Sadiq and Ameen. It said the disqualification would remain effective until the court declaration exists.

The decsion was unanimous and Justice Azmat Saad Sheikh also wrote an additional note. On February 14, a five-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, had reserved the verdict while hearing several petitions to determine the duration of a lawmaker’s disqualification after being de-seated in violation of Article 62(1)(f) and other election laws. During the hearing, the court had observed that disqualification will continue for as long as the declaration [signed by electoral candidates declaring them honest] holds, adding the 18th Amendment, passed in 2010, did not determine the time period for disqualification. Last year on July 28, the Supreme Court had disqualified former prime minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for concealing in his nomination papers the receivable income from his son’s company in the UAE.

Save up to

$11,0000 NEW 2018 Silverado Double Cab 4x4 5.3L V8 Active Fuel Mgmt, A/C, Rear Vision Camera, Trailering Eqmt, Bluetooth, Cruise, Deep Tinted Glass #8SI8499 MSRP DUECK/GM DISCOUNT TRUCK MONTH DISC

$47,235 $4,560 $1,600

CASH PURCHASE DISC GM CCARD APP BONUS

$4,080 $1,000

Finance

OR Weekly

DL:8430

500 TRUCKS ON GROUND! 0% FINANCING UP TO 72 MOS!

Taxes and $549 documentation fee excluded. Offer ends April 30th, 2018 Paymnent 1.99% for 84 mos.

SELECTION, VALUE & TRUST ...Since 1926!

CALL AMIN

604.324.7222

400 S.E. MARINE DR.

S H O P 24 / 7 O N L I N E @ D U E C KG M .C O M

30

NRI

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Oregon declares April as Baisakhi month The US state of Oregon has declared April as the “Sikh American Community’s Celebration of Baisakhi month” in recognition of the minority community’s contribution.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed a proclamation on Monday. It said Sikhs in the US pursued diverse professions and walks of life, making rich contribution to the economic vibrancy of the US as farmers, engineers, doctors and scientists. The city

of Salem has declared April 14 as Baisakhi Festival Day. In the past month, Oregon is the fourth American state to have dedicated April to Sikhism. The others are Indiana, Delaware and New Jersey. “This is an important event in the history of Sikh Americans in Oregon,” said local businessman Bahadur Singh, Ghadar Memorial Foundation chairman, who led the delegation to receive the proclamation.

3 Indians sentenced to 517-yr jail term in fraud case in UAE Two Indian men and a woman have been sentenced to 517 years each in jail by a Dubai court in a multi-million-dollar fraud case.

Sydney Lemos, from north Goa, was the chief executive of Exential, a forex trading company in Dubai Media City. Investors lost over $200 million when Exential failed to pay out after

promising 120% returns. The accused — Lemos, his wife Valany and Ryan D’Souza — were convicted by the Dubai Misdemeanours Court in the 515 cases filed against them and were sentenced to one year in jail each in 513 cases and two years in jail for the remaining two cases, Gulf News reported.

India beginning to work with US to resolve child abduction cases India is beginning to work with the US to find a solution to child abduction cases, a State Department official told lawmakers on Thursday, adding that she also pressed upon the Indian government -- during her visit to the country -- to join the Hague Convention.

“India is beginning to work with us to find practical solutions for children who are being abducted between our two countries,” Suzanne I Lawrence, Special Advisor, Children’s Issues Bureau of Consular Affairs at the Department of State, told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Sub-committee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organisations.

Lawrence said her believe in this regard was based on her recent trips to India and due to persistent engagement on the International Parental Child Abductions or IPCA. India is not party to the Hague Convention

Aao ji, it’s time to celebrate.

and has demonstrated a pattern of noncompliance as defined in the Act, she alleged.

India is not a signatory to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (Hague Abduction Convention), nor are there any bilateral agreements in force between India and the United States concerning international parental child abduction, according to the US State Department.

“In February of this year, I travelled to India to encourage government officials there to resolve the numerous abduction cases they have, and for India to join the Convention,” Lawrence said. She said the United States in its bilateral meetings with the governments of India, Brazil and Indonesia have been raising the issue of IPCA. While in the US, it is called abduction, most of such cases are a result of marital dispute wherein one of the parents stays with the child in India and quite often gets a court order in their favour, Lawrence said. The State Department in its travel advisor for India cautions the US citizens for acting forcefully to get back their kids while in India. “Parental child abduction is not a crime in India. Parents may wish to consult with an attorney in the United States and in the country to which the child has been removed or retained to learn more about how filing criminal charges may impact a custody case in the foreign court,” the State Department says in its travel advisor on India.

Indian engineer in US pleads guilty to raising money for top al-Qaida terrorist

The Vaisakhi Family Bundle is here from Shaw.

75

$

*

/mo.

for the first 6 months. $119/mo. for months 7-24.

On a 2-year ValuePlan.

Regular price: $140/mo.

• Internet 150 • BlueSky TV • South Asian 4-Pack Channels For details call 1-866-806-0031 or visit shaw.ca/vaisakhi

Offer available for a limited time and is subject to change without notice. Price shown does not include tax. Offer only available in select market and applies to new customers only. New customers must not have subscribed to the selected Shaw service(s) (Internet or Video) or bundle in the past 90 days. Regular rates apply after 2-year commitment and are subject to change. Not all Shaw packages and services are available in all regions. Connection speeds may vary based on modem equipment, building wiring, Internet traffic, device capability and environmental conditions. Channel and Theme Pack availability varies by market. You may not resell Shaw services. The TV equipment and modem you rent, or purchase may be new or refurbished. Equipment not purchased by you must be returned to Shaw if any of your services are cancelled. If your offer includes BlueSky TV equipment, a maximum of twelve (12) TVs can be connect, requiring three (3) BlueSky TV HDPVRs with three (3) portal for each. This offer includes one (1) BlueSky TV HDPVR and two (2) portals. All Shaw services are subject to our Joint Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Acceptable Use Policy located at www.shaw.ca. “Up to” speeds are based on optimal conditions. HD hardware is required for HD Programming. Early cancellation fees apply and will be calculated based on the number of months remaining in the 2-year ValuePlan multiplied by the early cancellation fee ($15 per month for the Internet only agreement or $20 per month for the Internet and TV agreement). Details on 2-year ValuePlans can be found at Shaw.ca/valueplandetails.

A 38-year-old Indian engineer in the US state of Ohio, accused of funding a top al-Qaida leader, has pleaded guilty to concealment of financing of terrorism. *CSBIJN ;VCBJS .PIBNNBE second of the two brothers, is accused of sending money to Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. AlAwlaki was later designated a terrorist and killed by a US drone in 2011. Mohammad, is to receive an agreed-upon prison sentence of 60 months, although he would receive credit for the 30 months he already has spent in the Lucas County jail awaiting trial, The Blade newspaper reported yesterday. US District Judge Jeffrey Helmick told him that due to his plea and conviction, he would be deported to India.

“You ultimately will be removed from this country and told you are not welcome to come back,” the judge said. Mohammad had studied at the University of Illinois and lived in Toledo since 2006. As part of a plea agreement, the four original charges brought by a federal grand jury in 2015 are to be dismissed at the time of sentencing, which was not scheduled, the report said. Two co-defendants, Sultane Roome Salim, 43, and his brother, Asif Ahmed Salim, 37, are scheduled for a change of plea hearing before Judge Helmick later today.

Mohammad and the Salims had been set for trial April 23.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

CHALO DELHI NON-STOP. SOON, ALL YEAR ROUND. Starting June 8, our Vancouver to Delhi non-stop flights will be available all year round.

Enjoy our award-winning three cabin service including next generation lie-flat seats in International Business Class, a spacious Premium Economy Class and enhanced comforts in Economy Class. Plus, Punjabi and Hindi speaking flight attendants, a choice of Indian meals, and a selection of Bollywood movies and music. Experience all the comforts on our 787 Dreamliner, the only non-stop flight to Delhi all year round.

Book now at aircanada.com or call your travel agent.

31

32

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 1

www.theasianstar.com

Vaisakhi Special

Vol 17 Issue 11 Saturday, April 14, 2018

Tel: 604-591-5423

The Significance of Khalsa

T

he collective body of allinitiated Sikhs represented by the five beloved-ones and can be called the Guru Panth, the embodiment of the Guru and the final temporal Guru/leader of the Sikhs. The word Khalsa translates to “Sovereign/Free”. Another interpretation is that of being “Pure/Genuine.” The Khalsa was inaugurated on March 30, 1699, by Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru. From then on the temporal leadership of the Sikhs was passed on to the Khalsa with the bestowed title of “Guru Panth” and spiritual leadership was passed on to the Guru Granth Sahib with the Khalsa being responsible for all executive, military and civil authority in the Sikh society. The Khalsa is also called the nation of the Sikhs.

The Sikhs of the Khalsa can be identified with the given Five Ks and titles ofSingh

and Kaur, granted after the disciple has been baptized into the order of the Khalsa. The tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh at an event that coincided with the Vaisakhi day (of the new lunar month Baisakh Samvat 1756) created the Khalsa in the year 1699 A.D at Kesgarh, in Anandpur Sahib ordained that every Sikh becomes Amritdhari “Having taken Amrit]” and follow the Five Ks; which are not merely symbols but display commitment to the philosophy of Guru Nanak Dev like a uniform of an organization.

A Sikh male at being initiated into the Khalsa is titled Singh meaning “Lion” and

a female is entitled Kaur meaning “Princess”. From then on they are commonly referred to as Amritdhari (having taken Amrit). The Khalsa is considered the pinnacle of Sikhism. The Khalsa is expected to perform no ritual and to believe in no superstition of any kind but only believe in

one God who is the Master and the Protector of all, the only Creator and Destroyer.

The usual interpretation of the Khalsa is made as “Pure” as in the following statement: (“pure/devoted”) word khālisa[h] is the recognition of every Sikh that follows the discipline and text from the Guru Granth Sahib.

There is also another word from Arabic which is pronounced as “Khalsa” and is adapted in Punjabi / English / Hindi and many other languages. So, there are two different words in Arabic: (Khalsa) and (Khalisa) Furthermore, there is a word in Persian meaning “pure” and pronounced as “Khalis”. A reader of Urdu can testify the “Khalis” in the Persian script and language as described below.

“Khalsa” is also used for a property which belongs to the emperor directly. The official language in the Mughal era was Per-

Continued on page 4

Happy Vaisakhi to All!

Lakh Lakh Vadhaiyan!

Andrew Wilkinson Leader of the Official Opposition

Stephanie Cadieux

Rich Coleman

Marvin Hunt

Michael Lee

Linda Reid

Todd Stone

Steve Thomson A message from your

Local MLAs

2 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Happy Vaisakhi SURREY CITY COUNCIL WISHES YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A VERY

MAYOR LINDA HEPNER

COUNCILLOR TOM GILL

COUNCILLOR MIKE STARCHUK

COUNCILLOR BRUCE HAYNE

COUNCILLOR BARBARA STEELE

080235

surrey.ca

COUNCILLOR VERA LEFRANC

COUNCILLOR JUDY VILLENEUVE

COUNCILLOR MARY MARTIN

COUNCILLOR DAVE WOODS

The Significance of Khalsa From page 1 sian and Persian language contains a word “Khalis” which directly translates to “Pure” in English. This may give a new meaning to the word “Khalsa”.

On these grounds and as per writings of the Guru Gobind Singh, the father of the Khalsa, wherein the great Guru describes the Khalsa as army of the timeless-being, it is evident that Khalsa means timelesssovereign.

In Sikh tradition, the word Khalsa first appears in a hukmanama (order)

by Guru Hargobind (the sixth Guru) which refers to asangat as “Guru ka khalsa” (“Guru’s Khalsa”). It also appears in a letter by Guru Tegh Bahadur (the ninth Guru), in the same sense.

Although the early Mughal emperors had peaceful relations with the Sikh Gurus, the Sikhs started facing religious persecution during the reign of Jahangir.

Persecution against the Sikhs continued until the creation of the Sikh Kingdom in 1799. Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, was arrested and executed by Emperor Jahangir in 1606. The following Guru,Guru Hargobind formally militarized the Sikhs and emphasized the complementary nature of the temporal power and spiritual power.[12] In 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru of the Sikhs was executed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for saving the religious rights of Hindus. In 1699, his son and the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh sent hukmanamas(letters of authority) to his followers throughout the Indian sub-continent, asking them to gather at Anandpur Sahib on March 30, 1699, the day of Vaisakhi (the annualharvest festival).

Guru Gobind Singh addressed the congre-

gation from the entryway of a tent pitched on a hill (now called Kesgarh Sahib). He drew his sword and asked for a volunteer who was willing to sacrifice his head. No one answered his first call, nor the second call, but on the third invitation, a person called Daya Ram (later known as Bhai Daya Singh) came forward and offered his head to the Guru. Guru Gobind Singh took the volunteer inside the tent, and emerged shortly, with blood dripping from his sword. He then demanded another head. One more volunteer came forward, and entered the tent with him. The Guru again emerged with blood on his sword. This happened three more times. Then the five volunteers came out of the tent unharmed. These five, who were willing to sacrifice their lives for their Guru, were called Panj Piare (“the five beloved ones”).[13] These five volunteers were : Daya Ram (Bhai Daya Singh), Dharam Das (Bhai Dharam

Singh), Himmat Rai (Bhai Himmat Singh), Mohkam Chand (Bhai Mohkam Singh), and Sahib Chand (Bhai Sahib Singh).

Guru Gobind Singh then took an iron bowl and poured some water in it. Sahib Devan (later Mata Sahib Kaur) added some sugar crystals to the water, and the Guru stirred this mixture with a double-edged sword whilst reciting the Five Banis. The resultant solution is called as “Khandey di Pahul” (ceremony of the double-edged sword) or commonly known as “amrit” (nectar of immortality) These actions allude to the nature expected of the inductees to the Khalsa: that they must have the will and the strength to fight oppression (symbolized by the sword)

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 3

Vaisakhi 2018 Teachers in our public schools join with you in celebrating Vaisakhi.

A message from the Surrey Teachers’ Association

4 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 5

6 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

CDI College wishes you and your family a Happy Vaisakhi !

1.877.905.7302 careers.cdi.college.ca

L 7

8 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

HAPPY VAISAKHI

L 9

10 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 11

12 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 13

14 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 15

16 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 17

18 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 19

20 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Wednesday.........................CLOSED

!

" # $"

%% " & # ! '() * '

!

" # $"

+) ') # #

! !

# #

) & #! $" ! , !

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

HAPPY VAISAKHI

to all our Clients, Friends & Family

)25 6$/(

)25 /($6(

4"/%8*$) 4)01 '03 4"-&

,0 (

/FXMZ FTUBCMJTIFE TBOEXJDI TIPQ 0QQPSUVOJUZ UP BEE PS DIBOHF NFOV #VTZ QMB[B JO 0DFBO QBSL XJUI 4BGFXBZ 3FYBMM BOE MJRVPS TUPSF BT NBKPS BODIPST (SFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ GPS PQUJPOT MJLF 1J[[B %POBJS 4IXBSNB *OEJBO PS $IJOFTF PS PUIFS "TJBO $VJTJOF 0XOFS TFMMJOH EVF UP IFBMUI SFBTPOT -PX MFBTF XJUI FYDFMMFOU UFSN $VSSFOUMZ NPTUMZ UBLF PVU CVU BQQSPWFE GPS TFBUT &OPSNPVT PQQPSUVOJUZ UP NBLF ZPVS FOUSFQSFOFVSJBM ESFBNT DPNF USVF $POUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

$0..&3$*"- 41"$& '03 4"-& 8JMM OPU MBTU MPOH IBSE UP GJOE QSJNF PGGJDF TQBDF OE GMPPS XJUI FYQPTVSF GBDJOH CVTZ UI "WF 6OJU "WF 1SJWBUF FOUSBODF MBSHF PQFO TQBDF BOE UISFF BEEJUJPOBM PGGJDFT 4FQBSBUF NFOhT BOE XPNFOhT XBTISPPNT $% [POJOH FOBCMFT UIJT UP CF TVJUBCMF GPS B MBSHF WBSJFUZ PG VTFT "T QFSNJUUFE VTFT JO UIJT [POJOH JT FYUFOTJWF QMFBTF DPOUBDU UP EJTDVTT "TLJOH

"4*"/ $6*4*/& '3"/$)*4& (SFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP CF ZPVS PXO CPTT XJUI UIJT VOJRVF "TJBO 'SBODIJTF DPODFQU 80, #09 5IJT GSBODIJTF PGGFST B WBSJFUZ PG IFBMUIZ "TJBO DVJTJOFT BMM VOEFS POF SPPG -PDBUFE JO CVTZ 2VFFOTCPVSPVHI -BOEJOH OFBS UIF -JRVPS TUPSF BOE XJUI 8BMNBSU BT B NBKPS BODIPS BOE NBOZ PUIFS OBNF CSBOE PVUMFUT $VSSFOUMZ SVO CZ BCTFOUFF PXOFS UIJT MPDBUJPO OFFET B IBOET PXOFS PQFSBUPS UP UBLF JU UP UIF OFYU MFWFM 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG DPOUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT "TLJOH

1*;;" '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-&

1PQVMBS 1J[[B GSBODIJTF JO FTUBCMJTIFE /PSUI 7BODPVWFS MPDBUJPO $PNQMFUF UVSO LFZ MPDBUJPO OFBS BMM MFWFMT TDIPPMT SFTJEFODFT BOE DPNNFSDJBM CVJMEJOHT BT XFMM 4FMMJOH EVF UP GBNJMZ SFBTPOT HSFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ GPS GBNJMZ BT XFMM &BTZ UP SVO FYDFMMFOU MFBTF BOE GSBODIJTF GFF JT JODMVEFE JO UIF QVSDIBTF QSJDF %POhU EFMBZ DPOUBDU UPEBZ GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

.&9*$"/ 3&45"63"/5 '03 4"-&

$-&"/*/( '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-&

&%0 +"1"/ '03 4"-& */ 0,"/"("/

'03 -&"4& */ /"/"*.0 1SJNF PGGJDF BOE SFUBJM TQBDF GPS MFBTF JO /BOBJNP %VOTNVJS 4USFFU OFBS DJUZ IBMM BNQMF QBSLJOH XBUFS WJFXT QSJNF PQQPSUVOJUZ $POUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT 6OJU 4R GU 3FUBJM BWBJMBCMF 6OJU 4R GU 0GGJDF TQBDF BWBJMBCMF 6OJU 0GGJDF TQBDF BWBJMBCMF 6OJU 4R GU BWBJMBCMF

1*;;" '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-&

6/*5 '03 4"-& */ -*55-& */%*" 1-";"

6OJU JO -JUUMF *OEJB 1MB[B GPS TBMF 3FUBJM FYDFMMFOU FYQPTVSF BOE BNQMF QBSLJOH "CJMJUZ UP TVCEJWJEF JOUP VOJUT 4R GU "TLJOH

#64*/&44 '03 4"-& 5VSO LFZ CVTJOFTT PQQPSUVOJUZ JO CVTZ :BMFUPXO 1PQVMBS 'SFTI 4MJDF QJ[[B GSBODIJTF XJUI IVHF WPMVNFT PG GPPU USBGGJD SFTJEFODFT BOE DPNNFSDJBM JO UIF BSFB JG IBT QSFNJVN FYQPTVSF &YDFMMFOU MPDBM GSBODIJTF TVQQPSU OP SPZBMUZ GFFT BOE GSBODIJTF GFF JT JODMVEFE JO UIF QSJDF 5IJT CVTJOFTT PQQPSUVOJUZ XJMM OPU MBTU MPOH %P OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG QMFBTF DPOUBDU MJTUJOH SFBMUPS GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

"-5&3"5*0/ #64*/&44 '03 4"-& */ .&530508/ -POH FTUBCMJTIFE BMUFSBUJPOT BOE ESZ DMFBOJOH CVTJOFTT JO .FUSPUPXO FYDFMMFOU SFQVUBUJPO TUPSF IBT VOEFSHPOF SFOPWBUJPOT BOE IBT MPX MFBTF &BTZ UP PQFSBUF QFSGFDU GPS PXOFS PQFSBUPST PS DBO CF SVO CF USBJOFE DPNQFUFOU TUBGG BMSFBEZ JO QMBDF $PNQMFUF UVSO LFZ MPDBUJPO HSFBU DIBODF UP CF ZPVS PXO CPTT 1MFBTF %P OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG "TLJOH

*/%*"/ 3&45"63"/5 '03 4"-& */ "##054'03% 3BSF PQQPSUVOJUZ UP QVSDIBTF ZPVS PXO UVSO LFZ XFMM FTUBCMJTIFE BOE QSPGJUBCMF *OEJBO $VJTJOF SFTUBVSBOU JO "CCPUTGPSE 5IF PQQPSUVOJUZ UP NBLF ZPVS FOUSFQSFOFVSJBM ESFBNT DPNF USVF 'VMM DPNNFSDJBM LJUDIFO BOE JOTJEF TFBUJOH QMVT MBSHF WPMVNF PG UBLF PVU BOE DBUFSJOH TFSWJDFT -PZBM DPNNVOJUZ GPMMPXJOH BOE FYDFMMFOU SFQVUBUJPO 1MFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT "TLJOH

30#*/4 %0/65 '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& */ 4633&: -POH FTUBCMJTIFE BOE SFDPHOJ[FE 3PCJOT %POVUT GSBODIJTF JO 4VSSFZ &BTZ UP SVO GVMM CBLFSZ FRVJQNFOU JO QMBDF UIJT QPQVMBS GSBODIJTF BMTP TFSWFT TBOEXJDIFT TPVQT EPOBJST BMPOH XJUI UIF DMBTTJD CBLJOH BOE DPGGFF UIBU 3PCJOT JT LOPXO GPS -PX MFBTF FBTZ PQFSBUJPO HSFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP CF ZPVS PXO CPTT "TLJOH

1"/"(0 '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& 8*5) 1301&35: :PVS CVTJOFTT PQQPSUVOJUZ BXBJUT 5VSO ,FZ 1BOBHP GSBODIJTF MPOH FTUBCMJTIFE FYDFMMFOU SFWFOVF CFJOH TPME CVTJOFTT XJUI QSPQFSUZ (SFBU JOWFTUNFOU PQQPSUVOJUZ JO )PQF #$ 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG DPOUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT PO UIJT HSFBU GSBODIJTF "TLJOH

.&9*$"/ '"45 '00% 3&45"63"/5 '03 4"-& "TTFU TBMF &TUBCMJTIFE .FYJDBO GBTU GPPE MPDBUJPO XJUI CVSSJUPT UBDPT BOE NPSF 5POT PG PQQPSUVOJUZ UP NBJOUBJO TBNF DVJTJOF PS DIBOHF &TUBCMJTIFE TFWFSBM ZFBST UIF PXOFS JT TFMMJOH BT BO BTTFU TBMF :PV BSF BCMF UP DIBOHF UIF DVJTJOF BU UIJT HSFBU MPDBUJPO 2VJDL QPTTFTTJPO BWBJMBCMF #F ZPVS PXO CPTT CSJOH ZPVS ESFBN JEFBT IFSF $POUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT "TLJOH

1*;;" '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& &TUBCMJTIFE 1J[[B GSBODIJTF JO CVTZ TUSJQ NBMM JO -BEOFS 5VSO LFZ PQFSBUJPO HSFBU GSBODIJTF TVQQPSU FYDFMMFOU TBMFT (SFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP SVO ZPVS PXO CVTJOFTT %P OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG QMFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

1PQVMBS TFBU .FYJDBO SFTUBVSBOU GSBODIJTF JO CVTZ -BOHMFZ NBMM XJUI NBKPS BODIPST MJLF 8BMNBSU BOE 4BWF PO 'PPET 5IJT CVTZ GSBODIJTF IBT 4VCXBZ BT UIF QBSFOU DPNQBOZ PGGFSJOH +&8&--&3: #64*/&44 '03 4"-& FYDFMMFOU NBOBHFNFOU BOE TVQQPSU UP GSBODIJTFFT (PPE MFBTF JO QMBDF HSFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ 5VSO ,FZ +FXFMMFSZ CVTJOFTT GPS TBMF JO 4VSSFZT CVTZ 1BZBM CVTJOFTT DFOUFS 8FMM FTUBCMJTIFE HSFBU MPDBUJPO UP CF ZPVS PXO CPTT 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

-FBEJOH QJ[[B GSBODIJTF JO QSJNF MPDBUJPO UPOT PG GPPU USBGGJD BT XFMM SFTJEFODFT BOE CVTJOFTTFT JO %PXOUPXO 7BODPVWFS PO CVTZ %BWJF 4U 1SPGJUBCMF 'VMM 104 TZTUFN FBTZ UP SVO BOE FYDFMMFOU TBMFT WPMVNFT $POUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT "TLJOH

)25 6$/( /($6( 1*;;" '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& */ -"/(-&:

XJUI SFHVMBS DMJFOUFMF /%" NVTU CF TJHOFE CFGPSF BOZ JOGPSNBUJPO XJMM CF SFMFBTFE 1MFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT PO UIJT SBSF PQQPSUVOJUZ "TLJOH

'63/*563& ."/6'"$563*/( #64*/&44 '03 4"-& 3BSF PQQPSUVOJUZ UP CF ZPVS PXO CPTT XJUI FTUBCMJTIFE GVSOJUVSF NBOVGBDUVSJOH CVTJOFTT GPS #FESPPN GVSOJUVSF TPGBT BOE UBCMFT "MPOH XJUI GVMM NBOVGBDUVSJOH CVTJOFTT UIFZ BMTP BSF XIPMFTBMFST BOE SFUBJMFST 0QQPSUVOJUZ UP QVSDIBTF UIF NBOVGBDUVSJOH BOE XIPMFTBMF CVTJOFTT BMPOH XJUI SFUBJM TFHNFOU *OWFOUPSZ JO BEEJUJPO UP QVSDIBTF QSJDF 1MFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

4"-0/ 41" */ 1":"- #64*/&44 $&/5&3 8FMM FTUBCMJTIFE TBMPO TQB JO QSJNF BSFB BSFB PG 4VSSFZ JO 1BZBM CVTJOFTT DFOUFS &TUBCMJTIFE GPVS ZFBST DPNQMFUFMZ UVSO LFZ PGGFS TFSWJDFT GPS 8PNFO NFO BOE DIJMESFO 4FQBSBUF FOUSBODFT BOE BSFBT GPS CPUI XPNFO BOE NFO 8FMM MBJE PVU TFQBSBUF USFBUNFOUT SPPNT DVUUJOH TUBUJPOT XBTIJOH TUBUJPOT BOE NBLF VQ TUBUJPOT -BVOESZ PO QSFNJTFT XBTISPPN BOE ,JUDIFO (PPE MFBTF CF ZPVS PXO CPTT JNNFEJBUFMZ #FBVUJGVMMZ TFU VQ BMM UFOBOU JNQSPWFNFOUT BSF EPOF 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG QMFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP PO UIJT PQQPSUVOJUZ "TLJOH

$0..&3$*"- ,*5$)&/ '03 -&"4& -PPLJOH UP PQFO B SFTUBVSBOU /FFE B GVMM DPNNFSDJBM LJUDIFO 1FSGFDU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP MFBTF B SFTUBVSBOU DPNQMFUFMZ UVSO LFZ IBT KVTU CFDPNF BWBJMBCMF 1SJNF /FXUPO BSFB "QQSPY TR GU BQQSPY TFBUT DVSSFOUMZ XJUI MJRVPS MJDFODF 'VMM DPNNFSDJBM LJUDIFO #SJOH ZPVS JEFBT ZPVS DVJTJOF MPUT PG PQUJPOT 'SBODIJTFT BMTP XFMDPNF $POUBDU GPS B TIPXJOH BOE NPSF JOGP

1*;;" '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-&

-FBEJOH QJ[[B GSBODIJTF JO QSJNF MPDBUJPO UPOT PG GPPU USBGGJD BT XFMM SFTJEFODFT BOE CVTJOFTTFT 8FMM FTUBCMJTIFE UVSO LFZ 1J[[B GSBODIJTF $MPTF UP -POTEBMF 2VBZ NBSLFU OFBS GFSSZ BOE CVT UFSNJOBM BT XFMM 'VMM 104 TZTUFN FBTZ UP SVO BOE FYDFMMFOU TBMFT WPMVNFT $POUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT "TLJOH

30#*/4 %0/65 '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& */ -"/(-&:

0OF NPSF VOJU TRGU BMTP BWBJMBCMF GPS MFBTF $BMM OPX GPS NPSF JOGPSNBUJPO

0''*$& 6/*5 '03 -&"4& "5 45

1*;;" ,&#"# )064& */ '-&&5800%

#BTFNFOU IBT FYUSB CFESPPN SFD SPPN MBVOESZ SPPN BOE TUVEZ %PVCMF DBS HBSBHF BOE SPPN GPS 37 -BSHF NBTUFS CFESPPN XJUI FOTVJUF *EFBM GBNJMZ IPNF DMPTF UP FMFNFOUBSZ TDIPPM 4R GU -PU 4R GU IPNF $BMM GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

:PVS CVTJOFTT PQQPSUVOJUZ BXBJUT /FXMZ DPOTUSVDUFE NPOUIT

QSJNF MPDBUJPO 1J[[B BOE ,FCBC IPVTF JO 'MFFUXPPE #FBVUJGVM UFOBOU JNQSPWFNFOUT EPOF JOTJEF GSPN TIFMM TQBDF JODMVEFT GU DBOPQJFT XBML JO DPPMFS QJ[[B PWFO GSZFST BOE NPSF 'VMM DPNNFSDJBM LJUDIFO ,FFQ JU BT UIF QPQVMBS QJ[[B MPDBUJPO UIBU JT OPX PS BEE PO UP UIF NFOV PS DIBOHF DVJTJOF FOUJSFMZ $PNQMFUFMZ UVSO LFZ XJUI 104 UIBU IBT CFFO QVSDIBTFE BT XFMM 1SJNF BSFB HSFBU TBMFT BOE FYDFMMFOU MFBTF 8IZ XBJU CF ZPVS PXO CPTT UPEBZ 1MFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

4,*/ $"3& $&/5&3 */ %08/508/7"/$067&3

*/%*"/ $6*4*/& '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& */ "##054'03%

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

4.005)*& '3"/$)*4& */ 1035 .00%: -FBEJOH 4NPPUIJF 'SBODIJTF BWBJMBCMF JO QPQVMBS 4VUFS #SPPL 7JMMBHF 1PSU .PPEZ 8JUI PWFS TUPSFT BDSPTT $BOBEB UIJT GSBODIJTF PGGFST 4NPPUIJFT XSBQT QBOOJOJT BOE NPSF &YDFMMFOU MFBTF FTUBCMJTIFE TBMFT BOE HSFBU EFNPHSBQIJDT NBLF UIJT BO BNB[JOH UVSO LFZ FOUSFQSFOFVSJBM PQQPSUVOJUZ 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG 1MFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP

"TLJOH

3BSF PQQPSUVOJUZ GPS QPQVMBS FTUBCMJTIFE BOE QSPGJUBCMF *OEJBO $VJTJOF GSBODIJTF JO "CCPUTGPSE $PNQMFUF UVSO LFZ MPDBUJPO FYDFMMFOU SFQVUBUJPO XJUI UBLF PVU MJNJUFE EJOF JO BOE DBUFSJOH 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG DPOUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT "TLJOH

1*;;" '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& 1PQVMBS BOE FTUBCMJTIFE QJ[[B GSBODIJTF PQQPSUVOJUZ BWBJMBCMF XJUI QSPQFSUZ $PNQMFUF UVSO LFZ PQFSBUJPO XFMM FTUBCMJTIFE UIF SBSF PQQPSUVOJUZ UP PXO UIF CVJMEJOH BT XFMM #VTZ DPNNFSDJBM TUSJQ XJUI MPUT PG XBML JO USBGGJD BT XFMM $POUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP

"TLJOH

*/%*"/ 3&45"63"/5 '03 4"-& */ 7"/$067&3 0WFS ZFBST FTUBCMJTIFE *OEJBO 3FTUBVSBOU XFMM LOPXO BOE SFDPHOJ[FE XJUIJO UIF IFBSU PG 7BODPVWFS 5IJT FTUBCMJTINFOU PGGFS %JOF *O 5BLF PVU BOE %FMJWFSZ 5IJT TFBU SFTUBVSBOU IBT GVMM CBS BOE JT PQFO EBZT B XFFL ZFBST BHP GVMM SFOPWBUJPOT XFSF EPOF UP UIF SFTUBVSBOU (SFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ GPS B UVSO LFZ SFTUBVSBOU XJUI GVMM DPNNFSDJBM LJUDIFO $BO CF DIBOHFE UP PUIFS DVJTJOF BT XFMM PS LFQU BT FUIOJD *OEJBO $VJTJOF 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGPSNBUJPO "TLJOH

7&3" 4 #63(&3 '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& -PPLJOH GPS UIF QFSGFDU GSBODIJTF XFMM MPPL OP NPSF &TUBCMJTIFE BOE BXBSE XJOOJOH 7FSBhT #VSHFST JO CVTZ .FBEPX 5PXO $FOUFS XJUI NBKPS BODIPST MJLF 4VQFSTUPSF $JOFQMFY 0EFPO BOE NBOZ NBKPS 'JOBODJBM *OTUJUVUJPOT BOE NBKPS SFUBJMFST 'VMM DPNNFSDJBM LJUDIFO BOE DPNQMFUFMZ UVSO LFZ PQFSBUJPO XJUI FYUSB MBSHF QBUJP HPPE MFBTF MPX GSBODIJTF GFFT BOE CFFS MJDFODF $VSSFOU BCTFOUFF PXOFS UIJT CVTJOFTT JT B HSFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP CF ZPVS PXO CPTT BOE UBLF JU UP UIF OFYU MFWFM 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

#"3 (3*-- */ -"/(-&: '03 4"-& 8FMM FTUBCMJTIFE #BS BOE (SJMM JO UIF IFBSU PG -BOHMFZ "QQSPY TFBUJOH TFBUT 'VMM DPNNFSDJBM LJUDIFO QBUJP TFBUJOH BT XFMM (SFBU GPPE NFOV MPZBM GPMMPXJOH BOE GVMM XFCTJUF BT XFMM -JRVPS MJDFODF BN BN 4VOEBZ VOUJM NJEOJHIU $VJTJOF DBO CF DIBOHFE PS LFFQ JU BT B CJTUSP CBS BOE HSJMM DPODFQU /%" NVTU CF DPNQMFUFE CFGPSF BOZ JOGP XJMM CF SFMFBTFE 1MFBTF EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG QMFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

1*;;" '3"/$)*4& '03 4"-& &TUBCMJTIFE QSPGJUBCMF BOE SFQVUBCMF 1J[[B GSBODIJTF GPS TBMF JO QSJNF 8IJUF 3PDL CFBDI MPDBUJPO (SFBU GPS B GBNJMZ SVO CVTJOFTT PQQPSUVOJUZ 'VMM USBJOJOH QSPWJEFE CZ GSBODIJTF /P NPOUIMZ SPZBMUJFT BMTP NBLF UIJT B HSFBU GSBODIJTF PQUJPO $VSSFOU PXOFS IBT TDIPPM DPOUSBDUT BOE DPSQPSBUF DPOUSBDUT BT XFMM &YDFMMFOU MFBTF JO QMBDF XJUI PQUJPO UP SFOFX $POUBDU UPEBZ GPS NPSF JOGP PO UIJT HSFBU FOUSFQSFOFVSJBM PQQPSUVOJUZ "TLJOH

+&8&--&3: #64*/&44 '03 4"-&

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hT CSBOE OFX SFUBJM QMB[B PO UIF DPSOFS PG BOE UI JO /%" "TLJOH -JUUMF *OEJB 1MB[B 5PUBM TR GU XIJDI DBO CF EJWJEFE JOUP UXP VOJUT PG TR GU BOE TR GU 0QFO TQBDJPVT VOJUT MPUT PG XJOEPXT BOE IJHI DFJMJOHT NBLF UIFTF JEFBM SFUBJM VOJUT "NQMF QBSLJOH BOE FBTZ USBOTJU BDDFTT ;POJOH BMMPXT GPS WBSJPVT VTFT QMFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP

,0 (

(SFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP PXO B QJ[[B GSBODIJTF JO QSJNF BSFB PG 8BMOVU (SPWF -BOHMFZ $PNQMFUF UVSO LFZ PQFSBUJPO BOE BDUJWF XJUI TUFBEZ TBMFT (SFBU MPDBUJPO BDSPTT GSPN UIF 4BOENBO )PUFM 5IJT FTUBCMJTINFOU PGGFST EFMJWFSZ TFSWJDF BOE IBT SFHVMBS DMJFOUFMF &YDFMMFOU MFBTF BT XFMM 0QQPSUVOJUZ UP DIBOHF UP PUIFS DVJTJOF PS DIPPTF OPU UP LFFQ GSBODIJTF JG ZPV DIPPTF 1MFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

6OJRVF 0QQPSUVOJUZ GPS MFBEJOH /PSUI "NFSJDBO $MFBOJOH SFTJEFOUJBM BOE DPNNFSDJBM DPNQBOZ GSBODIJTF 5IJT IPNF CBTFE CVTJOFTT IBT CFFO PQFSBUJOH JO UIF -PXFS .BJOMBOE TJODF PXOFST BSF OPX SFUJSJOH BOE JU JT B HSFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP CF ZPVS PXO CPTT XJUI B MPOH FTUBCMJTIFE SFQVUBCMF DPNQBOZ 4USPOH GSBODIJTF TVQQPSU CSBOE SFDPHOJUJPO FTUBCMJTIFE DMJFOUFMF BOE TFSWJDFT UIBU JODMVEF $BSQFU DMFBOJOH VQIPMTUFSZ BOE NBUUSFTT */7&4503 "-&35 DMFBOJOH SVH BOE DVSUBJO DMFBOJOH UJMF TUPOF BOE HSPVU DMFBOJOH BT XFMM BT DPVOUFS UPQ *OWFTUPS BMFSU &EXBSET %S )PQF 8FMM DMFBOJOH $POUBDU UPEBZ UP HFU NPSF JOGP PO UIJT SBSF PQQPSUVOJUZ "TLJOH NBJOUBJOFE CFESPPN CBTFNFOU FOUSZ IPNF

8BOUJOH UP SFMPDBUF UP UIF CFBVUJGVM 0LBOBHBO (SFBU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP PXO POF PG UIF JOEVTUSJFT CFTU VQ BOE DPNJOH IFBMUI DPOTDJPVT SFTUBVSBOUT &EP +BQBO TQFDJBMJ[FT JO QSFQBSJOH GSFTI IFBMUIZ XIPMFTPNF GPPE -PDBUFE JO POF PG 7FSOPOhT CVTJFTU TIPQQJOH QMB[BhT BU UIF CVTJFTU JOUFSTFDUJPO JO UIF DJUZ 5IJT TFBU SFTUBVSBOU JT CSJHIU DMFBO BOE XPVME CF B UVSO LFZ CVTJOFTT BT TUBGG JT JO QMBDF BOE GVMMZ USBJOFE #F ZPVS PXO CPTT XJUI B XFMM SVO UVSO LFZ GSBODIJTF XJUI FYDFMMFOU MFBTF TUSPOH SFWFOVF BOE FYDMVTJWF UFSSJUPSJBM SJHIUT BT XFMM 1MFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF JOGP "TLJOH

L 21

3&5"*- 41"$& '03 4"-& "QQSPY 4R GU PG SFUBJM TQBDF BWBJMBCMF JO 1BZBM #VTJOFTT $FOUSF 5XP VOJUT FYDFMMFOU WJTVBM BOE SFUBJM FYQPTVSF -PDBUFE JO UIF IFBSU PG UIF 1VOKBCJ .BSLFU $MPTF UP #BORVFU IBMMT PGGJDFT SFTUBVSBOUT TIPQT #FBVUJGVMMZ CVJMU JOTJEF %P OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG QMFBTF DPOUBDU -3 GPS GVSUIFS EFUBJMT "TLJOH NJMMJPO

*5"-*"/ %&-* #64*/&44 '03 4"-& 0WFS ZFBST FTUBCMJTIFE *UBMJBO %FMJ BMTP TQFDJBMJ[JOH JO IPNF NBEF UBLF IPNF IFBMUIZ NFBMT TVDI BT MBTBHOB DBOOFMPOJ NFBUCBMMT TBVTBHFT BOE NPSF $BUFSJOH TFSWJDFT JODMVEJOH NFBU DIFFTF BOE BOUJQBTUP USBZT &BTZ UP SVO CFBVUJGVMMZ NBJOUBJOFE FYDFMMFOU SFUBJM QSPEVDU MJOF JO XIJDI UIFZ BMTP EP PSEFST GPS DPSQPSBUF BOE QFSTPOBM HJGU CBTLFUT #SJOH ZPVS JEFBT UP UIJT UVSO LFZ CVTJOFTT 0XOFST SFUJSJOH EP OPU BQQSPBDI TUBGG QMFBTF DPOUBDU GPS NPSF EFUBJMT "TLJOH

$"'² '03 4"-& 8FMM FTUBCMJTIFE UVSO LFZ $BGF JO QSJNF UPVSJTU MPDBUJPO PG QPQVMBS )BSSJTPO )PU 4QSJOHT TFBUT DBTVBM DPVOUSZ

3FUBJM BOE PGGJDF VOJUT GPS MFBTF JO QSJNF BSFB BU TU -BSHF TR GU TQBDF QFSGFDU GPS BUNPTQIFSF UIF QFSGFDU PQQPSUVOJUZ UP CF ZPVS PXO CPTT )VHF GPMMPXJOH BOE JNNFOTFMZ QPQVMBS CSFBLGBTU BOE #BS SFTUBVSBOU IBMM TFQBSBUF FOUSBODF JEFBM MPDBUJPO *ORVJSF GPS NPSF JOGP NVDI NPSF $BMM UP JORVJSF GVSUIFS EFUBJMT PO UIJT UVSO LFZ DBGÏ JO B QSJNF UPVSJTU BSFB "TLJOH

22 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special

Farm and Spice, an Asian grocery store

“Farm and Spice Hamesha Fresh Shopping Karo Dil Khol Kar�

I

s all set to open its flagship store and second location in the heart of Surrey at 128 and 96 avenue. Farm & spice is a grocery chain in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada under the parent company Planet Earth Grocers Ltd. (PGEM).

Their head office is based in Surrey, BC. Farm and Spice aims to consistently provide the most fresh and lowpriced, healthy food wholesome range of grocery products to the South - Asian community

within a pleasing environment.

The mission of the brand is to be-

come the most preferred and reliable name for grocery products

amongst the public, while continuing to provide a wide range

of fresh and low-priced products.

We invite the community to join

us for the opening ceremony of our flagship store on Sunday, April 15, 2018 at Cedar hill plaza to enjoy a variety of discounts on our products.

Make sure to be a part of this grand event and experience a warm hospitality and exceptional customer service.

We look forward to welcome everybody at our 128 and 96 avenue store grand opening. Tea and snacks will be served from 10am to 7pm.

Happy Vaisakhi

Vaisakhi Special

Saturday, April 14, 2018

L 23

24 L Saturday, April 14,

Vaisakhi Special